New Tesla battery may revolutionize home electricity
Tesla never seems to stop amazing the world with it’s high-end environmentally friendly, in particular it’s sports cars. Now they want the world to take note…
FILE: A pedestrian passes a Tesla Motors Inc. electric automobile showroom in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. The company announced it will start manufacturing batteries that can power an entire house.(Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Tesla never seems to stop amazing the world with it’s high-end environmentally friendly, in particular it’s sports cars. Now they want the world to take note of a battery that can power up your home.
The new Tesla battery will be designed to power your home and even help large-scale utilities store energy more efficiently, according to company chief executive Elon Musk.
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On an investor call Wednesday, Musk said the designs for a home or business battery are already complete and will likely be unveiled to the public “in the next month or two.” Production could be as little as six months away, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s really great. I’m really excited about it,” said Musk.
The price of such a marvelous creation has not been mentioned yet. However, Tesla’s battery and charging technology could ultimately wind up saving you money on your electric bill.
Although many of today’s homes draw energy directly from the electricity grid, the recent rise of effective and cheap solar panels means it’s never been easier to generate some of your own energy. No one has discovered an efficient way to store renewables, but if Tesla’s stationary battery takes off, it could change the way electricity is priced and traded on a market scale.
Rather than continuously taking and never giving back, citizens have been dreaming of being able to sell excess energy back to the grid. They may have that chance with Teslas new battery.
Supercharger stations stand at the Tesla Motors Inc. Gallery and Service Center in Paramus, New Jersey, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Millions of consumers complain about their power companies every year and the frustration that comes along with frequent outages and poor customer service could be enough to boost Teslas battery sales through the roof.
Right now, individuals have very little choice over how to power their homes. Most have to rely exclusively on their local utility providers because getting a generator is unreasonably expensive for most. Some homeowners pay around $20,000 for back-up generators that run on natural gas. So Tesla is eyeing a market that might be ripe for innovation.
Teslas predicted success was hinted at last year by Morgan Stanley when it wrote that Tesla’s forthcoming products in this space could meet a huge market demand.
There may be a ‘tipping point’ that causes customers to seek an off-grid approach, Morgan Stanley wrote last March. The more customers move to solar, the remaining utility customer bill will rise, creating even further headroom for Teslas off-grid approach.
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All efforts are already being made to ensure the stationary batteries are as widely distributed as possible.
“A lot of utilities are working in this space, and we’re talking to almost all of them,” said Tesla’s chief technical officer, JB Straubel. “Its early stage stuff and a lot of these projects are very far out since the procurement cycle for utilities is so long. But this is a business that certainly is gaining an increasing amount of our attention.”
