The Tesla PowerWall: A Must Have for Your Home

Elon Musk recently announced a new product from his Tesla company. A small, wall mounted battery system to power your home called the Powerwall. I don’t know about you, but I am really excited about this new system.

I have spent the majority of my life living in Florida, and Los Angeles. In LA, I have seen rolling blackouts, and the ever looming specter of earthquakes that can quickly knock out the power grid. In Florida, hurricanes are a constant danger. After Hurricane Charley ravaged much of the state, some people I know where without electricity for almost a month. Even without hurricanes, Florida is constantly barraged with thunderstorms that knock out power. Add to this the threat of terrorist attacks knocking out power plants, or otherwise disrupting the grid, and I think having a back up power system is just common sense.

This new Tesla system can solve the problems of power outages. At a reasonable price of $3,500 for the 10kw model (The price, is also a third of such batteries available in the market.) , the Powerwall can power your house and be charged by either the grid (if it is working) or renewable sources such as solar or wind turbines.

This new system makes off grid living a decent alternative, and is a great back up option if you choose to stay on grid. Unlike our great grand parents, living without electricity is inconceivable to most of us. I wouldn’t know what to do if I couldn’t charge my devices, or use my computer.

It will be interesting to see what other uses are soon to come from this new advancement from Tesla. Is the Powerwall a good idea for RV’s or Sailboats? Will powerwalls take over the industrial diesel generators on construction sites (Tesla announced a scalable version of the Powerwall for industry)? How will the entertainment industry use these new battery systems that combine low cost, and high output?

In addition to these uses, the Tesla Powerwall will aid in human expansion across the planet. The off grid capabilities will allow us to have all the comforts of home without having to run power lines to our home. This means more areas are open to real estate development. We can now build houses on small barrier islands, and remote valleys that were once to remote to justify running power to, as well as other remote locations that did not yet have power lines run to them. When I was a child growing up in Florida we would frequently go out in the wilderness for target practice. At the time it was legal to discharge a firearm as long as you were more then 1 mile from an occupied dwelling. You could always tell when you were far enough out because the power lines stopped 1 mile past the last occupied dwelling. At the time much of Florida was undeveloped and people could not live in those areas simply because of the costs of running power out to them. The Tesla Powerwall will change all of that.