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Live Stream: 0. Tesla will open source its patents for the Gigafactory. 1. Elon thinks all the world's energy needs can be served with 2 billion Tesla GW powepacks. 2. Elon: "This is something we can do, need to do and should do." It's over.
I'm going to install a 9kW solar grid on my roof in the next couple of months - capital cost is ~$40K USD. Without the Power Wall, I'd be selling power back to the utility at around $0.10 / kWh, and buying it back at $0.09 / kWh in the evenings. The Power Wall will also let me endure grid outages as well (you can't run your house on your solar panels directly). I'm really curious about what the end-user cost is going…
$40K for 9kW solar sounds really expensive, I advice you to shop a bit or consider Solar lease. I have a 10 kW plant from SolarCity installed in late 2013. It is a prepaid 20 year lease, meaning I own the electricity and they own the panels, and the total cost (including installation, pv, inverters) to me is about 10K. You seem to be getting a 1 cent more for the electricity, so your only motivation for this must be…
1. 30% rebate on federal income tax, so that's $12K back in the first year. 2. $0.54 / kWh WA state energy production credit which is capped at $5K / year. The estimated power production of a 9kW array over 1 year should get me pretty close to $5K back. The production credit expires in June 2020, which means that best case I get $25000 back from the state.
Without factoring in energy cost savings, I nearly break even in 5 years. Energy cost savings are somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 / year with solar.
If the only rationale was energy savings, it's not a good investment. However, the tax incentives make it very attractive indeed.
More details on WA state incentives here: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/washington/
I might spend $480 on electricity per year. I can't see this thing having an ROI within its lifespan. I also don't have solar panels, and have a very reliable power grid. Any reason I should consider buying one?
I know people who spend $480 per month.
This is Guatemala, where I don't trust the grid much. I ended up buying ~$1000 worth of portable battery backups (UPS) and plug them in wherever I need it, but they need replacing every couple of years.
It'd be much simpler to have a simple battery pack, although I'm not sure this would handle the load.
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Is it really worth it if it really takes 10 years to break even (and that's the lifespan as you mentioned)? That's like giving someone a 10 year 0% interest loan. Maybe you're better off buying a bunch of Tesla stock with that money if you think they'll stick around that long.
If you're only looking at it from a financial perspective, it may not be "worth it" (I haven't done the math). But if you want to pay a little to be able to have reliable power from unreliable sources, then it could be "worth it". It may save you zero dollars over ten years, but during that time you're provided the service from this system.
The maximum temperature will be an issue here in Australia. In a typical place where it will be mounted, i.e. the garage, the temperatures will readily get over 40, close to 50 during summer. I could see this also being a problem in places like Nevada and Arizona in the USA.
Though, I guess you could somewhat justify using solar power for cooling the battery when the temperature gets excessive. Presumably you'd be getting peak power at the same time you get peak temps.
-4F is definitely not that low, but at the same time when the house is heated, garage is going to get some of that heat as well.
Proof, if anyone still needs it, that Tesla is a battery company that builds cars, not a car company that builds batteries.
How big is their battery business compared to their car business?
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$3500 doesn't include the inverter or transfer switch. Transfer switch is maybe $200, and it's not clear what the inverter might cost. It's a nontrivial part, since it would be responsible for daily cycle estimation and cost optimization. For $3300 you can get a 17 kW generator with inverter and transfer switch [0], which will run for days on a house-sized propane tank. At my house in the woods, we do sometimes get m…
Some people (like me) are simply unwilling to keep using carbon-based sources of energy. At some point it just feels awful to be contributing to such a terrible problem. I'm counting the days till I can sell my worn out petrol car and get an electric car. If I had a home and dollars, I'd want one of these batteries.
In my clueless opinion these batteries should be used strategically in places where solar, wind, and hydro power are unavailable.