Musk drops price on battery storage product like a happy bomb

[gpatt0n]

Published on May 1, 2015 The Powerwall battery back-upsystem, introduced by Tesla Motors, can storeelectricity generated by solar panels or taken from thegrid during off-peak hours, then power appliances anddevices in a home. Predicted to cost $13,500, Elon Muskexcited those attending the introduction by announcingthe 10kw storage unit would wholesale for $3,500. This additional information from Greentechmedia.com The big reveal from Tesla Energy tonight:the company will charge $3,500 for a10-kilowatt-hour energy storage pack that includesbatteries, a bidirectional inverter, thermalmanagement, and software. The price was the firstthing that Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, told the gatheredpress corps and the 1,000 Tesla fans in attendance.(That price is the cost to installers and does notaccount for incentives.) The audience actually whooped when Muskrevealed the price. Musk also said that the 100-kilowatt-hourindustrial and utility units cost $250 perkilowatt-hour. "There's nothing remotely at these pricepoints," said Musk. Musk called the Powerwall home batterypacks "beautiful" and boasted of their non-intrusivesize of 6 inches by 3 feet by 4 feet. JB Straubel,Tesla CTO, said that a key differentiation is thelevel of integration and 10-year guarantee. Straubelnoted that the home battery packs have cellchemistries and control software designed for thedemands of stationary storage. When asked whether the applications arebackup or time-of-use arbitrage, Musk went a bitKumbaya: "Our goal here is to fundamentally changethe way the world uses energy at the extreme scale,"adding, "The goal is the complete transformation ofthe entire energy infrastructure of the world tocompletely sustainable zero carbon." As to theanswer to the question, the brain trust said,"Both." Musk spoke of the allure of gridindependence, reliable backup power, and the abilityto gather cheap power at night to use or sell duringthe day. He suggested that 2 billion packs would beenough to transition the world completely tosustainable energy -- that's electricity, heating,and transport, according to the CEO. Musk is the wrong person to bet against,but as Jeff St. John has reported,it's not quite as simple as that. Even at theseremarkably low costs on an asset that will beleased, there are still some headwinds for Tesla.While demand shaving and time-of-day differentialsmight help some consumers save money in a perfectworld, not all residential markets work for energystorage. (It certainly works in Hawaii -- SolarCity will be offering aget-off-the-grid package to Hawaiiansin 2016.) But utilities and PUCs are alreadyreviewing rate cases and incentive rules to assessthe value of residential energy storage and itsimposition on the utility status quo. SolarCity founder and CTO PeterRive suggested in a recent blog post,"Proceedings currently underway, such as the NewYork REV and California’s More than Smart, seek thecreation of effective market structures fordistributed clean energy services that will rewardutilities for adopting cheaper, cleaner,customer-sited resources. The products that we’reannouncing today are the building blocks of thesenew market structures." He added, "I believe thebest grid design is one in which utilities embracedistributed energy resources. However, whenutilities and regulators impose solar-specificcharges on their customers, or burden homeownerswith unduly long system interconnection delays,utilities risk mass customer defection from the gridvia solar battery systems."

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[CitizenCain]

Whatever happened to the ' Bloom Box ' that was suppose to produce electricity from natural gas ?

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/alternative-energy-the-bloom-box/

[gpatt0n]

What you're talking about with the Bloom Box is a fuel cell development ... and fuel cells continue to develop.

 

From the same source as the text above, (greentechmedia) is this bit on the NSA taking one of bloom's boxes for their Ft. Meade operation.

 

 

 

Despite the inability of any fuel cell firm to make a profit, Bloom Energy continues to sell and deliver its solid oxide fuel cells to a number of big-name customers. The decade-old VC-funded startup's most recent announcement is that the U.S. Department of Defense has installed a 1.6-megawatt Bloom fuel cell set at the NSA campus in Fort Meade, Maryland.

The prime contractor on the project is ARGO Systems, which describes itself as "a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business headquartered in Hanover, Maryland." Jeff Johnson, ARGO's COO, said in a release that this is the "first-ever solid oxide fuel cell powering a DOD facility."

ARGO has declined to comment, as has Bloom. I will assume that the NSA knows we've been asking about the agency and will get back to us with a response when it is ready.

Toyota allows Tesla battery deal to fade; will focus on fuel-cell autos

The New York Times reported last week that Toyota will allow its battery supply contract with EV builder Tesla to expire, in order to focus on manufacturing fuel-cell vehicles. Toyota had invested $50 million into the EV upstart in 2010. Toyota's RAV4 crossover sport utility vehicle incorporated Tesla's electric powertrain, but "sold poorly, despite low-cost lease and loan offers," according to the article.

The Times quoted green-car analyst John O'Dell of Edmunds.com as saying, "“It’s obvious Toyota doesn’t see a market for electric vehicles. They really see the future of the zero-emission vehicle as the hydrogen vehicle." Regarding the RAV4, he noted, "They can’t even give these cars away. Why continue doing this?”

 

You can see from this that Toyota bought into the fuel cell.

 

I did see another story about bloom boxes in Delaware where they apparently are now being tied up in court. You know there is big money and big bets being made on this stuff and they use the courts to thwart things if it promises to make them a buck.

 

pubby