Let’s be honest here… we already knew Tesla was the front-runner in this industry.
Yet, the company isn’t alone in its innovations; many car companies have had electric vehicles on their dockets and off-grid batteries in the works for years.
But check out these numbers quoted by Tesla’s optimistic chief technology officer, JB Straubel: the 60,000 or so cars Tesla already has worldwide provide about 5 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.
That could grow to 70 gigawatt-hours just in electric vehicles in just a few years!
But cars aren’t the only market Tesla’s technology is changing.
Tesla’s business and home-sized Powerpack and Powerwall batteries are already in use, and are advertised as back-up batteries that can store solar energy to use at night, in emergencies, or just when grid electricity becomes expensive during the day.
Straubel spoke at Intersolar’s opening ceremony about the possibility of making solar and wind power available on demand for times such as these.
Another possibility coming to fruition is the use of such large batteries to store non-renewable energy for use by utilities who could use them to meet new energy regulations or simply run their grid systems more reliably.
One Greentech Media Research report noted that $128 million worth of energy storage was installed in the U.S. last year, amounting to 61.9 megawatts of power—which they’re expecting to potentially quadruple by year-end to approximately 220.3 megawatts (obviously bolstered by Tesla’s popular demand.)
The key to keeping that demand is to bring efficient, affordable energy storage to consumers. Straubel says, “we are within grasping distance of that goal.”
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