Battery Pack for your Home

27th February 2015

This Friday Forage story concerns Elon Musk. If you have not heard of him before, here is a brief history:

In 1995 he co-founded Zip2 – sold to compaq in 1999, Elon's share was $22 million
In 1999 he co-founded of X.com/PayPal – sold to ebay in 2002, Elon's share was $165 million.
In 2002 he founded SpaceX - SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles. Became the first privately funded company to put a satellite into Earth orbit.
In 2003 he invested in Tesla Motors, 2008 he became the CEO and product architect. The Tesla Roadster is the first production car to use lithium-ion battery cells and has a range of over 350km per charge. It can also get to 100Km/hr in 4 seconds. Tesla sells electric powertrain systems Daimler, Mercedes and Toyota.
In 2006 he co-founded SolarCity, it is is now the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States

He is one of those guys that makes you question what you have done with your life.

Battery for your home

In February 2015 he announced in the next few months Tesla would be producing stand alone batteries for homes. This would be a great compliment to SolarCity products. Instead of selling to the grid the energy you generate during the day from your roof top solar cells, you store it and use it at night when you need it the most. You can still be connected to the grid and sell back to it, but it is on your terms.

Also a nice option when electricity grids go down in emergencies. A pilot program of 500 homes in California demonstrated the 10 kilowatt-hour battery pack can keep a house going for 2 days with no additional input.

The SolarCity business model is to provide a lease option, reducing the upfront cost and leaving customers paying less each month than they did with the electricity companies.

Takeaway

There are lots of disruptive technology being developed out there. Keep your heads up and research threats to your business. Have professionals like us on your side, both to mitigate the threats and also become those making the threats.