Image: Tesla
Tesla founder Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla Energy, an ambitious plan to power the world with a new design of home battery called the Powerwall, with the aim of making more consumers less dependent on the grid.
The newly designed Powerwall, produced at Tesla’s new Nevada Gigafactory, will be available in “three or four months” via various installation partners. It will cost around $3500 — and can theoretically be scaled “infinitely,” Musk says, all the way up to industrial and utility level. The larger server-sized, industrial-level battery will be called a Powerpack.
“Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy,” Musk told a press conference at the Tesla Design Center on Thursday night. “It sounds crazy, but we want to change the entire energy infrastructure of the world to zero carbon.”
The 10 kilowatt-hour Powerwall, available in a range of colors, functions best as a system of storage for solar power. But Musk points out it will also work for non-solar consumers in cases of power outage — as well as allowing them to avoid drawing on outside electricity during peak periods, when utility prices are highest.
“It provides security, freedom and peace of mind,” Musk said — adding that “all we need” is to roll out 2 billion Powerwalls to meet the energy needs of the entire world, and that the poorest communities with no power lines will benefit the most.
“That seems like a crazy number,” Musk admitted of the 2 billion figure, “but it’s comparable to the number of cars and trucks on the road [around the world] — and they get completely refreshed every 20 years.”
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