A Sneak Peek at Tesla's next Big Thing

Yes, a big thing is coming from Tesla Motors (TSLA). Tesla Motors will officially introduce a new product line (and it's not a car) on Thursday, April 30th at 9:00pm PST according to a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. As always, this set the rumor mill in motion and although there are a few plausible guesses out there (i.e. electric motorcycles), the majority "in the know" are expecting some kind of new Tesla battery to power homes and businesses.

This could prove to be a game changer for homes located off-grid, or as backup for power outages and/or as a stationary storage solution for customers using solar power -- in fact, some may actually sell power stored back to their local utility/power company. For Tesla Model S owners, this gives new meaning to "driving on sunshine." And, remember... Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also Chairman of America's largest solar provider, SolarCity (SCTY), a company who has already promised a stationary storage solution from it's partner, Tesla, in summer of 2015.

Today, it was also rumored that Tesla has been quietly testing this approach with over 300 consumers and may already have this installed at Google's campus. Nevertheless, what tipped us off was prior remarks from Tesla's Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, J.B. Straubel. In an interview with the Economist, Straubel teased, "I see us [Tesla Motors] more as an energy-innovation company."

So how about a real sneak peek at what's coming? Take a look at J.B. Straubel's fascinating keynote at the Energy Storage Symposium, see below. I strongly recommend watching the whole video, but if you start at 18 min 21 sec to 37 min 4 sec, you'll get some deep insights into Straubel's views on Tesla's stationary storage plans.

Also, if you want more, we've featured (see below) another intriguing slide presentation from J.B. Straubel -- I'd point your attention (starting on) slide 28 and forward for a special breakdown on "Stationary Energy Storage Derivatives" coming from Tesla.Furthermore, other key executives at Tesla Motors have discussed stationary storage as an exciting growth area for the company. “Everywhere we look, there's an opportunity for storage,” said Mateo Jaramillo, Tesla’s Director of Powertrain Business Development. He discusses (listen below) Tesla moving deeper into grid-scale storage, behind-the-meter storage and solar-battery combination systems. Check out this podcast for more clues into Tesla's upcoming April 30th announcement...