Tesla’s Q2 2023 solar PV deployment decreased 38% year-on-year to 66MW as its battery storage system additions were met with a slight decrease from the previous quarter.

Solar deployment remained flat sequentially, as shown in the chart below, with the yearly decline due to a high interest rate environment which in itself caused the purchase of solar to be postponed industry-wide, according to the company.

Numbers for the first half of the year are also lower compared to 2022, with 133MW of capacity deployed this year versus 154MW last year, which was due to a strong second quarter – its biggest quarter in over four years – that saw Tesla deploy 106MW in Q2 2022.

Even though energy storage deployments decreased sequentially, numbers increased by 222% year-on-year in Q2 to 3.7 GWh, which Tesla attributed to the ongoing ramp up of its first factory dedicated to its utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), the Megapack, in Lathrop, California.

The explanation for the quarter-on-quarter dip isn’t a seasonal one, since deployments grew from Q1 to Q2 in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In an earnings call, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn indicated that the fall may be due to specific large projects being outliers from the broader trend.