For a moment there, Tesla Home Battery System sound a bit off its time, a little futuristic. It's easy to think it could end a natural death soon except for a teeny weeny bit of information: It is a brainchild of Elon Musk, the man who is making humanity's dash to Mars a reality.
Tesla's famous billionaire entrepreneur, CEO Elon Musk seem bent to shake the electricity market, not just for the US but for the whole world.
Just last Thursday, Musk unveiled his next big project, a suite of novel battery products dubbed the Tesla Powerwall. The products will not only cater to home but also scale upwards to utility scale applications. Taking on the stage at Tesla's design studio near Los Angeles International Airport, Musk was exuberant detailing his plans to drink-toting enthusiasts who were happy to cheer him on not unlike a pack of wonder-filled kids watching their first rocket launch to space.
Granting it will be successful, this latest Musk venture could dramatically reduce unnecessary fossil fuel use and doing away with the power grid.
As a home offering the Tesla Powerwall will store either 7 kilowatt-hours or 10 kilowatt-hours. SRP starts at $3,000 for the former and $3,500 for the latter.
But that is not what may have caught everybody's attention. It is the grandeur of Elon Musk's vision that is turning heads.
Musk opened up to reporters saying: "Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy."
Reportedly, the billionaire from South Africa is targeting to sell over 2 billion of these Tesla Powerwalls, the same number to vehicles already on roads. Again, Musk extraordinary faith in humanity's capacity is telling. He confirmed the goal is "within the power of humanity to do" even when it looks like a "super crazy" idea to start with.
Business may provide a good clue. For starters, Amazon.com and Target plan to utilize Tesla Powerwall on a limited basis. Already, Southern California Edison is making the most of this recent offering from Musk.
Though at its current storage ability, the Tesla Powerwall may not be able to cater to the average 30-kilowatt-hour daily use of US households (U.S Energy), it certainly is a good power alternative during power outages especially when paired with solar cells.
Mike Thielen, an early adapter of the technology, has installed Tesla's prototype batteries on his California home. Though not really needing a lot of backup power yet, still he is jubilant about the whole value proposition saying, "I think it's brilliant." Adding, he concludes, "I would consider upgrading to a more powerful home battery if they could figure out a way to get me totally off the grid."
This early, Tesla Powerwall is winning after all.
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