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Earth-Friendly 'Powerwall' Will Use Solar Power To Bring Energy To Homes

by Sean Levinson
Tesla

On Thursday night, automaker company Telsa released a line of lithium-ion batteries that have the ability to power an entire home, business or community using stored solar power.

The product on display throughout the evening was the Powerwall, a six-inch-thick, 3-by-4-foot home unit that mounts on a garage wall or standard electric substation, Mashable reports.

During the press conference held at the Tesla Design Center, CEO Elon Musk said,

Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy. It sounds crazy, but we want to change the entire energy infrastructure of the world to zero carbon.

The Powerwall stores both solar energy and grid electricity during the day to be used at night.

This will take a huge chunk off customers' bills because electricity is more expensive at night when the demand is higher.

It will also provide extensive backup power should an outage occur.

Tesla coordinated with numerous solar companies so their systems, along with the electric energy grid, will work with the Powerwall.

The CEO stated two billion packs could supply enough energy to power the entire world.

Musk added,

That seems like a crazy number, 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.

And the event turned out to be a demonstration of the new products.

Musk stated,

This entire night has been powered by batteries. Not only that, the batteries were charged by the solar panels on the roof of this building.

Musk was referring to the 100 kWh Powerpacks that are meant to power giant facilities and possibly developing countries where there are no power lines.

The units will be manufactured at Tesla's new gigafactory, and they're set to be available within the next three to four months.

Citations: Elon Musk unveils Tesla Powerwall batteries to change the world (Mashable), Tesla Unveils Powerwall Battery For Homes Powerpacks For Businesses And Cities (The Huffington Post)