Recently SolarCity (SCTY.DL) announced that it will back up solar power with Tesla Motors (TSLA 0.73%) batteries. The question beckons, could this type of disruptive move cause utilities to fear EV battery makers or view them as potential partners? If the latter happens, could China's BYD Company (BYDD.F 4.35%), which Warren Buffett is an investor in through MidAmerican Energy Holdings, be in a position to enter uncharted territory with utilities? There are opportunities to fend off carbon issues, boost resiliency by using batteries to store power during excess demand, and avoid outages that may or may not come from weather (their batteries retain over 80% after three years of use).
Other than batteries manufactured originally for autos and now finding a dual role in commercial/residential buildings, another area of interest is companies simply focused on energy storage solutions such as Stem, which recently completed a $15 million Series B funding round from General Electric (GE 0.14%) and Iberdrola.
