Not your standard AA Battery

Say what you want about the almost clairvoyant faculties of Steve Jobs, I think that in many ways Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, is every bit of Jobs’ equal and he seems to come without all the baggage of the late Apple icon.    Musk is a Canadian American entrepenuer, engineer and inventor.  He is the current CEO and CTO of SpaceX.  CEO of Tesla Motors, and Chairman of SolarCity.  He is founder of Solar City and cofounder of PayPal.  Not a bad resume for a 43 year old.

Last week, Musk announced a new product from Tesla.  Building on the research and design work done for the all-electric car, Tesla has announced a battery that, when coupled with another energy source like wind or solar, can enable the average US household to someday go off the grid.

Dubbed the “Powerwall”, the battery has a depth of only about 7 inches and can be mounted on a garage wall or another surface, indoors or outside. It's roughly 4 feet high and 3 feet wide.  The Powerwall's price ranges from $3,000 for a 7 kilowatt-hour model and $3,500 for the 10 kWh version.  Even with a hefty installation cost, these prices are still far lower than the $20,000 estimate that some analysts had predicted.

For sure this is only the first of many products that will come to market as the industry tries to find ways to more efficiently generate and distribute electricity.  Today’s electricity grid is a complex marvel but is ageing.  Also, transmitting electricity over long distances is costly and inefficient.  As much as 15% of the energy is lost from the time it is generated until the time it gets to your home.  Placing the energy source close to the end user has always been the Holy Grail for large consumers of power. 

This won’t be the last we hear from Mr. Musk who has pioneered products and services thinking out of the box.  For example, in the development of the Tesla automobile he was granted several patents relating to batteries.  He announced last year that he would freely share the technology with any other competing firm in an effort to jump start the battery industry.

Batteries are not the only possible in-house energy source.  Some scientist and engineers are working on fuel cell technology.  A fuel cell about the size of a refrigerator and operating on hydrogen could someday power your entire house.  I bet Musk is already looking into it.