a16z backs Base Power in $200M round for home backup batteries

Base strength in less than a year, one of the largest battery fleets in Texas grew from a secret beginning.

Now the company has collected $ 200 million for plans for more megawatts clock battery storage and internal battery factory, including rapid expansion.

Bur Bour, in addition, andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture partners and valor capital were managed by partners. Altimeter, territorial, evolving enterprises and confidence enterprises took part.

Backup batteries are not a new thing – Tesla sells its power For about decades – but the base power model leads to a new area. First, his batteries are a mass of mass, 25 or 50 kilowatt-hours, almost twice or a fourth PowerWall, respectively. Then there is value: base capacity, $ 595 or $ 995 depending on the capacity, a PowerWall with a single power, a single power, will continue about $ 15,000 or more.

Hitch? Customers have to buy electricity in a kilowatt-cent office for three years in three years or receive local utility payments. They also have to pay an annual payment, which varies to $ 225 to $ 345. For Average Texas houseThe fee adds around 2 cents in kilowatt-hours.

For base strength, real money is in almost intensity-balancing transactions. Texas’ Thanks to the road to the electric market, to shoot the batteries installed to send back to electricity – by hand, in some cases manually manually.

By installing living batteries, found a quick way to build a megawat-class fleet called “Virtual Power Station” sometimes called “Virtual Power Station”. Texas is a large number of mass grid scale battery facilities, they can take years to plan, allow and build.

However, living batteries can be permitted and installed within a few weeks. The base power was installed in March 10 megawatts, co-founders and General Director Zach Dell tell Canary media. The company plans to hit a 100 megawatts clock this summer.

New financing will be expanded to speed facilities and new states. A trembling starting in a battery factory in the United States will start in a business factory that can partially insulate its tariff threats, but also presents a new risk of risk. Battery factories have been difficult to master and have other companies Click rough patches while trying the same.