Not seeing it. It’s just a big, wall-mount li-on battery. Um, okay.
Given that the EPA is trying to shut down a third of our electricity base load generating capacity and replace it with unicorn fart powered wind turbines and the power of hope, having something to keep the lights on when the power gets weak is important.
Examples of existing technologies.
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/toshiba-unveils-home-battery-systems-back-power.html
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/backup/4400-watt-home-battery-backup-system.html
While these two systems were developed for solar, they work with the grid also.
Sounds like a lot of money for a mere 10 kw-hrs.
It could dramatically reduce time required to charge an electric car.
Same here. No big deal. How would it deal with a one-week power outage? No, it won't.
I've got a power generator and plenty of gasoline (stored in the tanks of several cars). One time there was a storm here that knocked out power in our neighborhood, and the utility took over a week to restore power. Good luck getting by on battery power. With my generator, I can easily run my fridge, washer and dryer as well as everything else.
It’s for solar-energy-producing homes. The problem is that solar-energy production peaks at noon, but demand peaks at 3PM. That means that utility companies still have to build nuclear power plants, etc., for peak, so the noon-time energy isn’t worth that much to them. For now, homeowners have been trying to sue or legislate the utility companies into buying energy they don’t need.
A “huge, wall-mount li-ion battery” would mean being able to sell your energy at peak demand times, utilities may be willing to spend massive amounts for it. Such a system might pay back users in a matter of just a couple of years.
How can there be an energy shortage? We have all of these hideous wind-turbines everywhere just spinning into the wind. Don’t they make up for all of the pronounced shortages?
Let say it enables you to sell 10 KW-hrs more to the utility per day. At 12 cents/KWH, that’s $1.20, or only about $438/yr. Right?
Wrong. That 12 cents is based on *average* cost of electricity, pro-rated by the utility. The utility’s cost swings wildly through the day. It could be worth 25 cents, or, in California, several times more.
Then, of course, on top of that, you get the value of a backup generator, by giving you the storage capacity to make your solar heating work at night.
And while you’re at it... that puts you completely off the grid, without even having to buy fuel.
If he tries enough big things, with all this hype everything he does gets, eventually something might actually stick.