Tesla Expected To Release Home Storage Battery That Could Save You Money
Tesla Motors will be announcing a new product today, but it no one thinks it will be a car! Teslais expected to unveil batteries for homes and businesses that are more advanced than what’s currently on the market. This would be Tesla Motors first foray into the stationary electricity storage business and is seen by many analysts as building a sustainable future for Tesla as it looks to expand from being just a car maker. Tesla has already installed around 300 batteries in California homes through a pilot project with SolarCity, where Elon Musk is chairman.
Tesla believes the batteries will become a big business as home owners will be looking for a battery solution for their solar panels, a backup power system or as a way to run their home on batteries during the day when electric rates are higher in some areas and then recharge the battery at night when the electric rates are lower. From the sounds of it the batteries would initially benefit industry more than residences. Government subsidies and electric company rebates have helped a large number of businesses across the country embrace solar panels and it can be argued that all of those entities could reap benefits from a battery being on the property.
A teaser image on Elon Musk’s Twitter account shows “The Missing Piece” and it looks exactly how he said it would. On a Tesla earnings call he said that “Some will be like the Model S pack: something flat, 5 inches off the wall, wall-mounted, with a beautiful cover, an integrated bi-directional inverter, and plug and play.” The image in the teaser could be that of a small home wall-mounted battery!
How much will a battery like that cost? According to the Guardian, customers could possibly be looking at upwards of $13,000 bill for a 10 or 15 kWh battery, although some SolarCity customers were able to lease them by paying an initial fee of $1,500 and then having monthly payments of $15 per month for 10 years. That adds up to being about $3,300 for the battery that should be able to run your home during the day or through power outages and then be charged from your local utility company during off-peak hours if they are available in your area.
Legit Reviews contacted Ameren Missouri, which is our power company here outside St. Louis and confirmed that there not a rate difference between night and day rates for residential customers in our area. We did learn that you could sign up for an optional rate program though that would allow you to have different rates during the day and night. To do so Ameren would have to install a special smart meter that could monitor your power usage and the time of day. There is also a special contract that requires a customer to remain on time of day rates for a minimum of 12 months. Ameren Missouri stated that this service benefits businesses more than residences since they could run their power hungry equipment at night such as printing presses.
You can watch the Tesla Energy Event Livecast here tonight at 8pm PT!