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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.
the economics don't add up. Others on this thread have already done the math for us. If you're off the grid or have a remote cabin somewhere this could be a great idea, combined with solar panels. But for the typical on the grid residential customer it just doesn't add up.
Part of the problem is the off peak rates that are part of the equation. The power companies are already pushing back on the amount they are willing to pay solar customers for excess power that is sold back to them from solar customers. A lot of people that bought panels were counting on those rebates and now their payback period is going to be much longer. Same thing will happen to off peak rates if this battery idea takes off.
What happens if you buy this battery and a year or two down the road someone comes out with a battery that is twice as efficient as the one you have? You're stuck with old technology that you can't trade in or sell easily. This is the exact question I asked Solar City when I was considering solar panels for my house. They told me you can't trade up to the newer panels. You have to pay off the first panels and then lease or buy the new ones. Their payoff calculation for the panels is based on two things that Solar City cannot control - the amount that the utility company will pay you for excess power and the amount of money that utility rates will rise in the future. No thanks.
It's kind of like buying a new computer or TV. You know that next years model will be better and cheaper. Except that instead of a $1000 computer you are taking about $20,000 solar panels. Or $6,500 batteries.