Amazon Announces Pilot Program To Test Tesla Stackable Battery Units

This week Tesla made a big announcement with a new Tesla Energy arm that aims to produce batteries that can be used in homes to store power. While that early announcement focused mainly on consumer applications, there are also some serious commercial applications for the battery tech Tesla Energy has. Amazon Web Services has announced that it has started a pilot of the new stackable battery units Tesla unveiled.

AWS has announced that it has rolled out a 4.8-megawatt hour pilot of the energy storage batteries in the Northern California region. AWS committed late in 2014 to running exclusively on renewable energy and these batteries will help it reach that goal.

According to Amazon's James Hamilton, these Tesla batteries can help AWS bridge the gap between intermittent power producing tech like wind generators and the constant need for power from a large data center. AWS says that the batteries can also help businesses save money by allowing them to buy power when it's at the lowest rates, store the power, and then use it when rates are higher.

The batteries are seen as another option to backup generators to provide power during an outage. The batteries could help AWS gain a competitive edge in a very competitive market where slight cost savings can make a big difference.

SOURCE: Venturebeat