Nissan launches British-made home battery to rival Tesla’s Powerwall | Business | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/04/nissan-launches-british-made-home-battery-to-rival-teslas-powerwall
Batteries that have powered electric cars around the UK will get a second life providing energy storage for households, with the launch this week of a British-made home battery to rival the one made by Elon Musk’s Tesla.
I mentioned Tesla battery a year ago in this blog at
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2015/05/02/watch-elon-musk-announce-tesla-energy-in-the-best-tech-keynote-ive-ever-seen-the-verge/
3 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
EVs Strain Clean-energy Supply, But Could Help Balance Grid
EVs could account for 12.5 percent of electricity generation by 2040 in Europe and the U.S.
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331956&
Except for reducing noise and air pollution in cities, there is no reason to purchase an electric vehicle if it is going to be powered with electricity obtained from fossil fuels.
Consider a country such as Poland, where 33 percent of all passenger cars are 20 years or older and only 12 percent of the electricity generated comes from renewable sources. If Poland suddenly changed half of those cars to EVs, it could cause a much bigger environmental problem that the one it’s trying to solve, John Roome Sr., director for climate change issues at World Bank Group, noted last month during the World Bank’s first Innovate4Climate summit, held in Barcelona, Spain.
Even in countries such as Germany, with the highest solar power capacity in the European Union—40,782 megawatts by the end of November 2016—a sudden mass adoption of EVs could delay the planned phaseout of carbon-fired and nuclear power plants, as power demands would likely increase.
Other countries are already prepared. Norway, which has the highest penetration of EVs in the world, began transitioning to renewable energy—especially by wind turbines—more than 20 years ago.
Bloomberg’s recently published “New Energy Outlook 2017” report projects that EVs will account for 12.5 percent of electricity generation in Europe and the United States by 2040.
Seventy-two percent of the $10 trillion to be invested in new power generation worldwide by 2040 will go to renewables, with $2.8 trillion and $3.3 trillion invested in solar and wind power, respectively. The total investment in wind is higher because photovoltaic-panel prices are expected to continue to fall much faster than wind turbine prices.
Ultimately, however, the mass adoption of electric vehicles could be the solution for the grid. Storing electricity produced during the night, especially by wind turbines, is difficult and expensive, but using that electricity to charge EVs would be almost free, and their batteries could also be used as temporary or permanent storage. Electric cars, when not in use and connected to a power outlet, could give some of their battery power back to the grid when power demand increases.
Endesa, one of Spain’s big power companies and part of Italy’s Enel group, recently demonstrated this solution, called V2G (vehicle to grid), in Malaga during one stop of its “Tour of Spain in Electric Cars.” The Mitsubishi electric car used in the demo provided power to one of the relay stations in a popular neighborhood in the city.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IKEA takes on Tesla by launching its own home battery
The Swedish brand’s partnership is the latest in its move into the connected home sector
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/ikea-launches-home-battery
Elon Musk may be focused on the launch of the Model 3, but when it comes to Tesla’s other business – home solar power and storage – it just got a major new rival: IKEA. The Swedish megabrand has announced today that it will offer solar storage to accompany its previously available rooftop solar cells.
IKEA’s batteries will be offered by Solarcentury, the UK’s biggest solar supplier. IKEA isn’t actually making the batteries itself: Solarcentury will provide the hardware, from existing suppliers including LG and German manufacturer Sonnen. Those companies already sell batteries. IKEA’s advantage? Cost, and scale: IKEA says its solar and battery offerings will start from £3,000, depending on location, type of building, and ease of installation. That’s compared with more than £5,000 for a 14 kWh Tesla Powerwall. However, it’s not hugely cheap: UK startup Powervault offers its own home battery product from £2,500.
As more households in the UK install solar and purchase electric cars, installing a home battery makes sense: IKEA and Solarcentury say users could save up to £560 per year, in part because the average home with solar sells its surplus energy back to the National Grid at a loss.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla has installed 200,000 Powerwalls around the world so far
https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/26/tesla-has-installed-200000-powerwalls-around-the-world-so-far/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Tesla has installed its 200,000th Powerwall, the company’s home battery storage product, the company said in a tweet on Wednesday. Tesla’s CFO Zachary Kirkhorn told investors during a first-quarter earnings call in April that Tesla is continuing to work through a “multi-quarter backlog on Powerwall,” suggesting that the volume of installations will continue to soar in coming months.
During that earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will no longer sell its Solar Roof panel product without a Powerwall.