A16z retracts energy in a tour of $ 200 million for home copies batteries

In less than a year, Base Power has grown from a surreptitious startup to one of the largest batteries in Texas.

Now, the company raised $ 200 million to finance rapid expansion, including dozens of more than hours of storing batteries and its plans for the local battery factory.

The chain tour B. In addition, Andressen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Valor Equity Partners. Share the height, terrain scale and projects Throwing and Trust Ventures.

Natural backup batteries are not new – Tesla has been sold Her powerwall Almost a decade ago – but the basic force takes the model to a new area. First, its batteries are huge, 25 or 50 kilowatt hours, approximately double or four electric wall, respectively. Then the cost is: basic energy fee only $ 595 or $ 995 in the foreground according to the capacity, while one powerwall will be operated about $ 15,000 or more before incentives.

obstacle? Customers must adhere to purchasing electricity from the company for a period of three years at a price of 9 cents per kilowatt hour in addition to the delivery fees that the local interest receives. They also have to pay annual fees, ranging from $ 225 to $ 345. to Texas medium familyThe fees add about 2 cents per kilowatt hour.

For basic power, real money is certain in balance between networks. Thanks to the way the Texas power generation market works, startups – in some cases – can be paid to take advantage of the batteries that are installed to send electricity to the network.

By installing residential batteries, it seems that the basic energy has found a fast way to build a Megawatt batteries, which is sometimes called the virtual power plant. While Texas is home to an increasing number of huge batteries facilities over the network, it can take years for planning, permit and designer.

But residential batteries can be allowed and installed within weeks. The main power was fixed 10 MW in March in March, co -founder and CEO Zach del He said Canary media. The company plans to hit the 100 -megawatt mark at some point this summer.

The new financing will go towards speeding up installations and expanding new cases. It will also go towards the start of building on a battery factory in the United States, an endeavor that can partially isolate it from the threat of definitions but also offers a new flavor of risk. The batteries factories have proven a challenge to receive them, and other companies have Beating When trying the same thing.