Tesla delivers the tools for #griddefection

tesla-and-powerwalleditors-blog-entry3Yes! I am SOOOO stoked: Tesla announced yesterday that “Tesla Energy” will be producing home battery packs called “Powerwalls.”

The Powerwall will allow people like me — I’ve got a 5.6 kW solar system on my home’s roof — to store the solar energy I produce during the day and then use it at night to do things like, hmmm…, I don’t know — maybe charge my all-electric Nissan LEAF with pure solar generated electricity!!!

That. Is. Freaking. Awesome.

Truly. Is.

And, get this: These “Powerwall” thingies — a great name for a home battery pack, BTW — are going to be affordable (unlike the Tesla cars, one of which I’d SOOO love to have, but simply cannot afford). Tesla will be offering a 10 kWh Powerwall for $3,500 and 7 kWh version for $3,000.

Okay, so 10 kWh isn’t huge, but it’s enough for me to get an excellent start on my end goal: Total and complete #GridDefection.

My LEAF has a 24 kWh pack, but most of the time, I’m adding between 4 and 10 kWh of charge to the battery per day. And I use very little electricity at home otherwise, being the energy miser I am.

I could add a second 10 kWh Powerwall, and be close to being able to unplug from the grid entirely here in Aurora, Colo. Add a third, and I’m definitely able to ditch — for eternity — BIG UTILITY MONOPOLY, which I detest only slightly less than Big Oil, which, BTW, hasn’t gotten a penny from me for 15 months and 16,000 miles of solar-charged driving.

Yes, things are looking up, yes, indeed — for fueling independence hungry folks such as myself, and, I’m guessing, many of the people who land on the pages of SolarChargedDriving.Com.

Goodbye Big Oil. Goodbye Big Utility Monopoly. Goodbye Dirty Energy On The Grid: Hello, Tesla Energy Powerwall.