Tesla Wants to Build a Battery for Your House

[J.P.M.]

That storage can work in the near future when you use it to smooth your peak power requirements under a demand rate plan. Here in Arizona, based on APS' existing Demand rate structure, reducing your peak by 1 kW over a couple of hours every day during the summer will reduce your monthly bill by about $15. That's a big payback!

Maybe it's time for the POCO's to get in the battery business. They seem to be scrambling after missing the boat on the chance to control the rooftop solar market 10 or so years ago.

[Ian S]

There have been a number of companies starting to provide a solar energy "storage system". While all of the advertisements looks cool you rarely see what the cost is for the system. Without that data it is hard to calculate what it costs to generate a kWh from the "storage system" to compare what it costs to purchase that same kWh from the Utility.

Until those "storage systems" gets down in cost where they are comparable to what the POCO charges per kWh then they will still only be a rich persons toy and not something that common folk can afford.

That storage can work in the near future when you use it to smooth your peak power requirements under a demand rate plan. Here in Arizona, based on APS' existing Demand rate structure, reducing your peak by 1 kW over a couple of hours every day during the summer will reduce your monthly bill by about $15. That's a big payback!

[DanKegel]

Yup. Everyone knows it's going to be batteries with smarts, and that
laptops, phones, and electric cars are driving battery technology
to the point where it will make sense for solar... but nothing's quite
ready for mass market yet. Ideas are cheap; execution is tough.
The next five years are going to be interesting.

[SunEagle]

Will probably be something like this:

http://www.asd-sunstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/brosch%C3%BCre-englisch_druck.pdf

A battery bank and some smarts. A few people doing it but I agree with a few earlier posts: Tesla will most likely win on econ of scale and wow factor.

There have been a number of companies starting to provide a solar energy "storage system". While all of the advertisements looks cool you rarely see what the cost is for the system. Without that data it is hard to calculate what it costs to generate a kWh from the "storage system" to compare what it costs to purchase that same kWh from the Utility.

Until those "storage systems" gets down in cost where they are comparable to what the POCO charges per kWh then they will still only be a rich persons toy and not something that common folk can afford.

[FishGun]

Will probably be something like this:

http://www.asd-sunstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/brosch%C3%BCre-englisch_druck.pdf

A battery bank and some smarts. A few people doing it but I agree with a few earlier posts: Tesla will most likely win on econ of scale and wow factor.

[Living Large]

So since a tesla has a about a 80 kwh battery, per your statement that battery would cost about $24,000.

That figure is not far from what some people on a Tesla forum are suggesting the cost would be to replace new today. Closer to $30K.

[Johann]

Related article:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/536336/inexpensive-electric-cars-may-arrive-sooner-than-you-think/

"The true cost of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars is a secret closely held by manufacturers. And estimates of the cost vary widel... But a peer-reviewed study of more than 80 estimates reported between 2007 and 2014 determined that the costs of battery packs are “much lower” than widely assumed by energy-policy analysts.
The authors of the new study concluded that the battery packs used by market-leading EV manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan cost as little as $300 per kilowatt-hour of energy in 2014. That’s lower than the most optimistic published projections for 2015, and even below the average published projection for 2020. The authors found that batteries appear on track to reach $230 per kilowatt-hour by 2018."

So since a tesla has a about a 80 kwh battery, per your statement that battery would cost about $24,000.

[DanKegel]

Related article:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/536336/inexpensive-electric-cars-may-arrive-sooner-than-you-think/

"The true cost of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars is a secret closely held by manufacturers. And estimates of the cost vary widel... But a peer-reviewed study of more than 80 estimates reported between 2007 and 2014 determined that the costs of battery packs are “much lower” than widely assumed by energy-policy analysts.
The authors of the new study concluded that the battery packs used by market-leading EV manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan cost as little as $300 per kilowatt-hour of energy in 2014. That’s lower than the most optimistic published projections for 2015, and even below the average published projection for 2020. The authors found that batteries appear on track to reach $230 per kilowatt-hour by 2018."

[pleppik]

The Gigafactory is currently under construction and Elon has been tweeting about the new product that is not a car.... My thought is this will be a relatively small battery designed for on grid battery back up. Likely to be distributed exclusively through Solar City at least initially and require grid tie and some sort of monitoring agreement. Not enough capacity for off grid use and more costly than FLA. All speculation of course but I thought it would be a good time to revive the thread.

You are right that the mystery product will probably be some sort of battery.

But I'm still hoping it's a personal spaceship.

[SunEagle]

The Gigafactory is currently under construction and Elon has been tweeting about the new product that is not a car.... My thought is this will be a relatively small battery designed for on grid battery back up. Likely to be distributed exclusively through Solar City at least initially and require grid tie and some sort of monitoring agreement. Not enough capacity for off grid use and more costly than FLA. All speculation of course but I thought it would be a good time to revive the thread.

I also saw some of that news hype about a new product. I agree it will probably be some type of battery and your guess as part of a home energy storage system is as good as any. We will have to wait for Musk. Just don't hold your breath.

[Edge of Nowhere]

Looks like we will be seeing more info on this soon

I guess Musk thinks that by manufacturing a whole lot of the same batteries (used in an EV or home storage) will bring the production costs way down and make those battery system very economical as compared to existing "energy storage" systems.

In manufacturing practice it makes sense that producing a product more efficiently and at higher volumes your can bring down the net cost of each item. But then again you need to be able to sell those items because they are in demand.

So his first hurdle is to get tax incentives to build the plant, then streamline the production process, simplify the shipping and logistics of getting the product out to the public and of course make sure there is a solid market of consumers and not just the small "green" percentage of the population.

The Gigafactory is currently under construction and Elon has been tweeting about the new product that is not a car.... My thought is this will be a relatively small battery designed for on grid battery back up. Likely to be distributed exclusively through Solar City at least initially and require grid tie and some sort of monitoring agreement. Not enough capacity for off grid use and more costly than FLA. All speculation of course but I thought it would be a good time to revive the thread.

[SunEagle]

I guess Musk thinks that by manufacturing a whole lot of the same batteries (used in an EV or home storage) will bring the production costs way down and make those battery system very economical as compared to existing "energy storage" systems.

In manufacturing practice it makes sense that producing a product more efficiently and at higher volumes your can bring down the net cost of each item. But then again you need to be able to sell those items because they are in demand.

So his first hurdle is to get tax incentives to build the plant, then streamline the production process, simplify the shipping and logistics of getting the product out to the public and of course make sure there is a solid market of consumers and not just the small "green" percentage of the population.

[Sunking]

Part of the reason I'd buy a (relatively small $ amount) IPO

Certainly a popular way to go. In 2007 I bought 100 shares of Priceline @ $50, and 150 shares of Amazon @ $35. Caught a double and sold half of each. Wished I had kept it, but no real problem as today Priceline is around $1200/share, and Amazon around $400/share. Its in ROTH so all tax free money.

William Shatner the spokesman for Priceline, you know that stupid conservative, has not been paid 1-cent for his commercials He only received stock of the company now worth $600 million dollars. Not too shabby He has made 20 times more money in 4 years doing Priceline commercials, than the rest of his whole acting career. Not bad for maybe a month or two of work.

[J.P.M.]

Storage will likely be a part of anyone's future core business, EV's, residential, probably commercial and maybe utility as well. Probably/maybe a larger part as time goes by.

Part of the reason I'd buy a (relatively small $ amount) IPO on a battery spin off and bail on half of it (or enough to get my initial investment back after the bloom was off the flower) would be to share in and use Musk's marketing prowess/chutzpah to make a few bucks off early adoptors/tree huggers and stick around with what I'd leave as a real long shot, high risk flyer with a co. that has some track record in new avenues for battery storage. Risk nothing, be nothing.

Who/whatever finds a practical, scalable solution to the energy storage situation will be the next Bill Gates. My guess is that solution won't happen in my lifetime, but you never know.

[russ]

I also like a product from a super high profile company that will get people thinking about how a grid that's 50% solar could possibly work. Super high profile? To the Tesla lovers but the rest of the world couldn't care less

Personally I prefer a grid with some local storage, rather than a structure where large corporations control my dishwasher circuit.

Wow! On a scale of important things in life this comes in at 9,999