Recharge your Tesla with a Tesla!

I just read a great article on Bloomberg. It's about the new Tesla PowerWall.(sic?) I'm among many who've been concerned about the drag on the power grid when all the battery powered car are plugged in to recharge after work, while dinner is cooking, and the A/C is running on max.

The Tesla PowerWall is a wall mounted battery pack that allows you to charge itself during off-peak hours or from solar or wind power. It can then provide power during heavy grid loads, power outages, etc. This backup system sounds a lot more practical than keeping up one of the natural gas or other fuel powered backup generators. Almost no moving parts is a good thing!

If that product works out I wouldn't be surprised if people end up selling power back to the grid from their powerwall when they are not using it during peak demand. Distributed generation, storage, and distribution would really smooth out the whole power situation, if we don't run out of lithium first!

I think the main market he's going for is the off-grid crowd with solar panels (Elon Musk also happens to be involved with a home solar energy company) or other unsteady power sources. It seems right now the existing home storage batteries have been way more expensive.

The funny thing is that this is not a new thing. Systems like this have been around as long as Solar has been around.

It's just never been in a clean sexy package like the Tesla Box. The older systems were flooded lead acid or AGM based systems and not as efficient. You can go buy those from numerous sources and the good thing is that these are individual battery cells and not a big unit so if one fails, You only have to replace that battery cell.

I installed these type of battery arrays with industrial size UPS systems 10-15 years ago. You would just have to set the controls to only charge at off-peak times and then set the transfer switch to a time based setup.

In reply to BillBall:

Utilities all over the place are moving quickly to undermine the ideas you're describing. It's the sensible thing to do, but any time you are trying to weaken a monopoly you're going to have to use a sharper sword than just common sense.

In reply to Vigo: A good example of your point is happening near by. Our local Gas & Electric company has been giving rebates, special rates, etc., etc. for those who buy low energy appliances, geo-thermal units and all manor of things.

Now they're going to the state utility board asking to raise the meter rates on gas and electric. They claim the money from selling utilities isn't adequate. so they want to raise the fees on everyone who has a gas or electric meter, even if those people don't actually use gas or electric in any given month!

BIG BROTHER IS GETTING BIGGER.

In reply to ronbros9:

No I think we are just getting older and more paranoid.

BillBall wrote: In reply to ronbros9: No I think we are just getting older and more paranoid.

Probably a little of each. But at least I don't wear a tin hat as someone accused me of doing.

Elon's no dummy...

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/31/elon-musks-5-billion-in-govt-subsidies-helps-make-ends-meet/

MichaelYount wrote: Elon's no dummy... http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/31/elon-musks-5-billion-in-govt-subsidies-helps-make-ends-meet/

Yes! I just read that article and already knew the contents. I still wonder why he hasn't joined the Military-Industrial Complex that Ike warned us about in 1959! As long as Hawks rule the budget, that's where the real government money is!

We suffer a few thousand of our young men killed on a regular basis. But Hey, as long as we keep the red states' citizens employed, it's worth it!

The best EV your tax dollars can build!