Thread: Tesla Powerwall - battery for your house

well, solar has been powering the International Space Station and every other satellite out there for over 40 years now.

there is obviously some "old" technology that we don't have access to yet.

satellite batteries cannot be heavy, nor can the hardware for it , so what is the latest in that department?

btw it also has to super reliable and in most cases non-serviceable , so we are long way behind in domestic land , aren't we?

the other thing which I have been made aware of is that there is a massive footprint involved in production of solar cells and the hardware including batteries to build these systems.

this is where China is stealing the biggest leap on the rest of the world by building huge alternate energy systems to use in manufacturing all of this equipment with a minimal footprint compared to coal fired systems.

once the alternate energy industrial/domestic power generating plants are online they will close down their dirty generating systems thus using clean energy and removing the terrible dirty footprint the rest of the world will have to manufacture clean energy generating systems.

it's real dog eat dog situation until the alternate energy (ie. clean) system can be used to produce clean energy systems for domestic use vis, the Tesla battery.

Isn't this thing just a flash looking ups? What's going to charge it? Coal!

Um....your solar panels will charge it during the day, you'll use it at night. That's how all of-the-grid systems work.

Originally Posted by Vern

Isn't this thing just a flash looking ups? What's going to charge it? Coal!

I'm quite sure the box will have enough smarts to charge off whatever source of energy the owner wishes, yes even coal if no other sources are available to tide you over between sun/wind/biomass/geothermal availability.

Originally Posted by Rick122

Um....your solar panels will charge it during the day, you'll use it at night. That's how all of-the-grid systems work.

Fully aware rick, but what is so special about this ups system? Is it just good marketing, like an iPhone? There are already plenty of systems out there, this system will not take you off grid, battery back up is to small.

Originally Posted by Vern

Fully aware rick, but what is so special about this ups system? Is it just good marketing, like an iPhone? There are already plenty of systems out there, this system will not take you off grid, battery back up is to small.

For consumers with time-of-day metering it allows the consumption of power to be cut during times of peak expense and the battery is then recharged by free solar or cheap off peak power. It can save the consumer considerable sums of money and removes the need to strengthen grid infrastructure to handle rare peak loads, ie "gold plating". This being very profitable for utilities when done with guaranteed rates of return from the government. Some pricing systems will be much more aggressive than this:

Yes, good marketing and a good quality product probably too. There are systems available but not all-in-one and not as cheap etc.
Maybe too small for some people's lifestyles. You can't expect to go Green and not make some sacrifices. If you are using more than the 10kwh it provides you either change how you use power or cough up for 2 of them. My brother has been of off grid for 12 years now with a less than 4kwh system running off lead acid batteries. Just saying it is possible if you are prepared to make changes.