PowerSwitch

Elon Musk, Tesla, and battery storage for the home:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/13/80336 ... -utilities

Cutting through the marketing hype, this does not appear to be anything new.
Battery storage has its merits, and is almost unavoidable for off grid premises or for backup in case of utility failure.

Batteries have improved in recent years and further improvements seem likely, but AFAIK Tesla have not developed any radically new or improved battery technology as compared to their rivals.

In any case the priorities for electric vehicle batteries and those for bulk household energy storage are very different.
EV batteries must be as compact and lightweight as possible, cost is often less important especially for high performance vehicles. The use of relatively hazardous materials is tolerated, it being argued that this is no more risky than the established technology of many gallons of volatile petrol, stored in a lightweight tank under the rear seats.

For bulk energy storage in a home, the main priority is least possible cycle cost and the absence of volatile materials. I for one do not fancy 100KG of lithium indoors any more than I would keep 100KG of petrol indoors.
Weight and bulk are relatively unimportant, a battery to power a home for some days will need a dedicated room. probably in the basement. It matters little if the battery weighs 2 tons, or 6 tons, provided that it is cheap and safe.

adam2 wrote:For bulk energy storage in a home, the main priority is least possible cycle cost and the absence of volatile materials. I for one do not fancy 100KG of lithium indoors any more than I would keep 100KG of petrol indoors.
Weight and bulk are relatively unimportant, a battery to power a home for some days will need a dedicated room. probably in the basement. It matters little if the battery weighs 2 tons, or 6 tons, provided that it is cheap and safe.

Indeed, this is key. I would be very surprised if the optimum battery technology for mobile applications (phones, laptops, cars...) was the same as for static applications, buildings. A very different set of criteria.

I suspect Elon Musk knows this.

Maybe Elon Musk is not so smart?

http://offgridquest.com/news/tesla-moto ... ome-batter

“We are trying to figure out what would be a cool stationary (battery) pack,” Forbes had quoted Musk as saying at the time. “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.”

Lithium oxygen progress:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/new- ... te-battery