Tesla To Announce Battery-Based Energy Storage For Homes

Okian Warrior writes: Billionaire Elon Musk will announce next week that Tesla will begin offering battery-based energy storage for residential and commercial customers. The batteries power up overnight when energy companies typically charge less for electricity, then are used during the day to power a home. In a pilot project, Tesla has already begun offering home batteries to SolarCity (SCTY) customers, a solar power company for which Musk serves as chairman. Currently 330 U.S. households are running on Tesla's batteries in California. The batteries start at about $13,000, though California's Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PCG) offers customers a 50% rebate. The batteries are three-feet high by 2.5-feet wide, and need to be installed at least a foot and a half off the ground. They can be controlled with a Web app and a smartphone app.

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[drinkypoo]

Bullshit

Who the fuck are you, coward? You're only capable of bullshit.

Not all ideas are viable.

Irrelevant. This is an idea already proven viable.

Deny it all you want, but Lithium ion based batteries are reaching the limits of their energy density.

Irrelevant. Not the only technology.

There are not any breakthroughs on the horizon that are going to make lithium ion batteries cost

More irrelevancy.

Perhaps its YOUR cognitive dissonance that is preventing you from recognizing that the technology is not viable.

Already proven viable.

People like you are quick to turn to conspiracy theories

Not a conspiracy theory, this was a deliberate attempt on your part to paint me with that brush. Also, conspiracies are the norm, not the exception. If two people team up to defraud a third in a way that breaks the law, that's a criminal conspiracy.

and pop psychology

Cognitive dissonance is not pop psychology, and you also don't get to suggest that I'm suffering from it while also insulting the concept.

as to why alternative energy is not mainstream when it is simple economics.

Yes, very simple economics: The entrenched interests have lots of money, and have been using it to manipulate the situation so as to remain in a position of power, as our corporatist system is designed to enable. No spooky invisible hands are needed to explain what is happening.