Tesla Wants to Build a Battery for Your House

[DanS26]

Anyone buying a Generac is beyond hope - Chinese POS. 3600 RPM generators are generally useless.

Your rose colored glasses and cute - learn a bit more about batteries than what your stock broker is telling you.

LOL......russ, I think you are stirring the pot.

[Living Large]

I read about this in a Norwegian newspaper this morning.

Elon Musk said...
Combining solar panels with large, efficient batteries could allow some homeowners to avoid buying electricity from utilities. Morgan Stanley said last year that Tesla’s energy-storage product could be “disruptive” in the U.S. and in Europe as customers seek to avoid utility fees by going “off-grid.” Musk said the product unveiling would occur within the next month or two.
“We have the design done, and it should start going into production in about six months or so,” Musk said. “It’s really great.”

This sounds like mumbo jumbo to me, a mere Joe Consumer.

If by "some customers" avoiding "utility fees" Musk means people like me, who would need to pay $90,000 US to get a POCO connection, OK.

Otherwise, this sounds like something Jim Morrison saw in a drug-infused dream. I don't see "going off-grid" as a voluntary move to save money. I see the exact opposite, and my return is I get to live in a place most people would be satisfied visiting for a week year. I get to live in "paradise" for a cost. In truth, it's in a God-forsaken place where I get to haul my own trash to the dump, drive 20 miles to the nearest store, and pay high prices for everything including the groceries.

"Go off-grid - everyone's doing it and look at the savings!" Sorry, it just doesn't look viable anytime soon. Especially not "in about six months or so".

[russ]

LOL......russ, I think you are stirring the pot.

It is more important to try to be accurate and correct than to be PC. 3600 RPM generators fall into the POS class.

Musk needs to stir the pot to keep the investors bucks rolling - that seems to be what he is doing at present. It is not all his money - he works with OPM to a great degree.

[donald]

Here's Tesla's Straubel "stirring the pot" last year at an energy storage conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWSox7mLbyE

[russ]

Here's Tesla's Straubel "stirring the pot" last year at an energy storage conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWSox7mLbyE

Actions count - Bloviating on youtube doesn't. When the systems are on the market place for one and all it will amount to something.

However, I expect that Musk is collecting money from the big boys as best he can manage.

[J.P.M.]

Actions count - Bloviating on youtube doesn't. When the systems are on the market place for one and all it will amount to something.

However, I expect that Musk is collecting money from the big boys as best he can manage.

If Musk were to spin off the battery business, I'd take a small risk on the IPO and bail on half of it after the enthusiasm wore out. Huge risk, small exposure, big potential gain for the remainder.

[donald]

I don't seem why they would spin off their battery division. It seems integral to their core business. In ten years storage will probably be more of a commodity business like panels today. Tesla's advantage is probably short term - Having the capability to provide safe, smaller systems at a lower price. The use of lithium in transportation may have a longer life than stationary. Assuming lithium is proven competitive in stationary storage.

[Sunking]

Assuming lithium is proven competitive in stationary storage.

You hit the bullseye. Right now using Chi-Com LFP is 2 times the long term cost of FLA. Tesla LiCo is 6 times higher that FLA or 60 times more expensive than buying power from the utility. How many decades will it take Tesla to close the competitive gap? As an investor I say never.

[donald]

It seems to me that part of the announcement may be software. That they will offer a turnkey system that will automatically arbitrage when appropriate tier structures are available. As a straight backup battery sale, it's hard to see how it will make sense. Perhaps the user will be able to adjust the system between arbitrage and emergency backup modes. All done with a slick smart phone app, of course.

They are not fools. They aren't going to offer a product that doesn't have a competitive advantage, at least in some niche. They probably don't have the medium term capacity to build a large number of units anyways.

I don't see how there is a high demand short term product here. But I do see something that may be interesting and smart for the long term. I also like a product from a super high profile company that will get people thinking about how a grid that's 50% solar could possibly work. Personally I prefer a grid with some local storage, rather than a structure where large corporations control my dishwasher circuit.

[russ]

I also like a product from a super high profile company that will get people thinking about how a grid that's 50% solar could possibly work. Super high profile? To the Tesla lovers but the rest of the world couldn't care less

Personally I prefer a grid with some local storage, rather than a structure where large corporations control my dishwasher circuit.

Wow! On a scale of important things in life this comes in at 9,999

[J.P.M.]

Storage will likely be a part of anyone's future core business, EV's, residential, probably commercial and maybe utility as well. Probably/maybe a larger part as time goes by.

Part of the reason I'd buy a (relatively small $ amount) IPO on a battery spin off and bail on half of it (or enough to get my initial investment back after the bloom was off the flower) would be to share in and use Musk's marketing prowess/chutzpah to make a few bucks off early adoptors/tree huggers and stick around with what I'd leave as a real long shot, high risk flyer with a co. that has some track record in new avenues for battery storage. Risk nothing, be nothing.

Who/whatever finds a practical, scalable solution to the energy storage situation will be the next Bill Gates. My guess is that solution won't happen in my lifetime, but you never know.

[Sunking]

Part of the reason I'd buy a (relatively small $ amount) IPO

Certainly a popular way to go. In 2007 I bought 100 shares of Priceline @ $50, and 150 shares of Amazon @ $35. Caught a double and sold half of each. Wished I had kept it, but no real problem as today Priceline is around $1200/share, and Amazon around $400/share. Its in ROTH so all tax free money.

William Shatner the spokesman for Priceline, you know that stupid conservative, has not been paid 1-cent for his commercials He only received stock of the company now worth $600 million dollars. Not too shabby He has made 20 times more money in 4 years doing Priceline commercials, than the rest of his whole acting career. Not bad for maybe a month or two of work.

[SunEagle]

I guess Musk thinks that by manufacturing a whole lot of the same batteries (used in an EV or home storage) will bring the production costs way down and make those battery system very economical as compared to existing "energy storage" systems.

In manufacturing practice it makes sense that producing a product more efficiently and at higher volumes your can bring down the net cost of each item. But then again you need to be able to sell those items because they are in demand.

So his first hurdle is to get tax incentives to build the plant, then streamline the production process, simplify the shipping and logistics of getting the product out to the public and of course make sure there is a solid market of consumers and not just the small "green" percentage of the population.

[Edge of Nowhere]

Looks like we will be seeing more info on this soon

I guess Musk thinks that by manufacturing a whole lot of the same batteries (used in an EV or home storage) will bring the production costs way down and make those battery system very economical as compared to existing "energy storage" systems.

In manufacturing practice it makes sense that producing a product more efficiently and at higher volumes your can bring down the net cost of each item. But then again you need to be able to sell those items because they are in demand.

So his first hurdle is to get tax incentives to build the plant, then streamline the production process, simplify the shipping and logistics of getting the product out to the public and of course make sure there is a solid market of consumers and not just the small "green" percentage of the population.

The Gigafactory is currently under construction and Elon has been tweeting about the new product that is not a car.... My thought is this will be a relatively small battery designed for on grid battery back up. Likely to be distributed exclusively through Solar City at least initially and require grid tie and some sort of monitoring agreement. Not enough capacity for off grid use and more costly than FLA. All speculation of course but I thought it would be a good time to revive the thread.

[SunEagle]

The Gigafactory is currently under construction and Elon has been tweeting about the new product that is not a car.... My thought is this will be a relatively small battery designed for on grid battery back up. Likely to be distributed exclusively through Solar City at least initially and require grid tie and some sort of monitoring agreement. Not enough capacity for off grid use and more costly than FLA. All speculation of course but I thought it would be a good time to revive the thread.

I also saw some of that news hype about a new product. I agree it will probably be some type of battery and your guess as part of a home energy storage system is as good as any. We will have to wait for Musk. Just don't hold your breath.