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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.
I wonder if they'll last any better as a fixed battery vs a car mounted battery, I think the car mounted ones loose 20-30% of their capacity after 10 years. For example I've heard that a lead acid battery that will typically only last 5 years in a car will last 20 years in a backup battery bank for a home/business. If the pack only lasts 10 years then I highly doubt this will be economical ($108 a month? that's more than my entire electric bill) except in very specialized applications. If it lasts 20 or 30 years ($54-$36 a month) then we're starting to get into the realms of sanity especially in areas with high peak usage costs.
Mine's more.
Where we moved to in North Carolina, we're only served by two utilities: AT&T (for internet/phone/TV) and Duke Progressive (for electricity). We use electric heating--which is expensive, and while our neighborhood will be getting natural gas in the next few months, it makes no economic sense for us to replace our central heating system with gas. (The payoff exceeds the lifespan of the HVAC already installed.)
I have to admit, the primary reason for not getting solar where we've lived in Los Angeles and now in Raleigh is that it didn't make a lot of economic sense. But as solar cell prices drop, having a battery-backed solar system on my house starts to sound more promising--especially after the last storm which knocked out our power for a couple of days.
Since we are on a well and septic tank, if we can get most of our power from solar then we can pretty much be self-sufficient if there is a major disruption in the future--and that's worth a premium over what we now pay for electric service.
That's only true if you figure that the battery is worthless at the end of its useful life. That's a silly assumption, because it's still full of the same amount of lithium as when you bought it. Recycling that lithium is much easier and cheaper than mining new lithium, so they battery is going to have a decent trade in value.
What's the downside of flywheels? Looking at wikipedia, the comparison to batteries is very one-sided, offering zero downsides.
I would imagine that there must be some, or we'd all have flywheels sitting in our basements. Is it cost?
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Agreed. Especially with the subsidies, i.e. my money.
You ar eright. Those oil subsidies are a bit of a nuisance.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If you maintain charge between 20% and 80%, which Tesla does with its cars and almost certainly will do with its home batteries, you can make the battery last 10 years.