As the price of solar power has dropped to levels rivaling coal, the new issue has become storage. A couple years ago, Hawaii was generating so much solar power it had to halt production because it was putting their grid at risk. Powerwall and Powerpack help address the load shifting issues that solar has suffered from. Elon's analogy of moving from landlines to cell phones was a really good one. Batteries this capable will let people, businesses, and entire communities operate without the need to be tethered to a massive power grid. This is huge.

So bad ass... I'm just going to park my battery powered car in the garage of my battery powered home. It's a cool time to be alive.

For a great breakdown on how home batteries will fit into the future of energy, check out this post from Ramez Naam - "Why Energy Storage is About to Get Big – and Cheap." http://rameznaam.com/2015/04/14/...

I happened to work with a brilliant gentleman named Dr. Ryan Wartena about 5 years ago on a similar concept called an "Energy Well." Simple storage and peering of energy for the modern, self-sustaining home. I'm quite glad to see this become more mainstream (or at least aspirational) with a company like Tesla entering the field. Despite all the battery-related chatter about better pricing for cars etc. I wanted to share a few things I learned while working on that project: 1. It's absolutely necessary. Even though a lot of people have speculated that this will help drive down battery costs for Tesla (making their car division more profitable) - what's important about this storage system is that homes can efficiently capture and store power (as opposed to heating pools or other self-made storage systems). It is one piece of a distributed future, no different than what we hope to achieve with decentralised farming (as transportation of food is more $$ than creation). 2. Centralised energy makers want this. The first thing I learned about the energy market is how fickle energy can be. Once created it's tough to store it without losses, and thus anything that is created must be consumed (in one way or another). Predicting load is a nightmare, not only because it's fundamentally cyclical at a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly level - it's also at the mercy of nature's randomness (weather and more). These "edge caches" help flatten the daily demand for power making it easier to create enough energy without too much wastage. 3. The Energy Peering Network is coming. Another benefit of local storage is peering. If these systems could be connected together we can radically reduce the transmission cost of energy and overall wasting in the network. In fact, centralised energy creators might buy energy that's stored in excess in a hedging function against their own generation methods. Basically, a new generation of the spot market for energy would emerge and buying and selling would happen between homes in your block. If I am having a chill night and you're having a party I might serve you power versus someone else or the central resource. 4. The US Government really wants this. I'd say the other items I pointed out are more obvious. This one I learned as result of Dr. Wartena's work. In a war scenario the prized targets generally tend to be communications, power, and travel infrastructure. If these can be disabled then it becomes hard to do anything. In a scenario where the US power grid is decentralised but coupled together with millions of local storage it becomes difficult (as an invading army for instance) to completely take down communications and power. There's always something generating and thus you'd have to destroy every harnessing building to ensure communications are dropped. -- For now, this is probably a really good addition to a 60k+ car and the 3k-ish price tag seems reasonable. In the future, I hope this evolves into more of an energy storage and distribution grid. Companies like NEST tried to tackle this issue by better controlling the energy spend whereas TESLA is coming from the angle of handling energy creation & storage. I think both solutions will meet one another + a smarter auction market and we'll have a pretty awesome time somewhere in the future. -- It makes me laugh that Elon Musk is going to fly his own rocket to Mars (a planet with no gasoline), drive around in his own Electric Car, power said car with his own energy storage systems, and power those storage systems with his own solar energy capture infrastructure. (SpaceX, Tesla, Solar City). /nnd

This might potentially do to home energy management system what nest did to thermostats. It is powerful, elegant and with combined expertise of Tesla(on battery tech) and Solar (solar city) can be disruptive. The cost of solar energy, especially in a country like India is only a fraction above coal and with huge solar generation potential, it can be a game changer!

Does anyone know exactly how this will integrate into my home power system and how the hand-off works in a power outage?

Beautiful product, but I feel it could use a bit more of explaining on the solar panels. Because you obviously need to install those independently and that will impact the "Solar peak"

An exciting consumer foray from the battery industry, the question is will there ever be a middle-class income price point for an electric car + battery combo investment. The battery industry as a whole seems like an uphill battle, with very few breakthroughs in the past 10 years.

This is the coolest thing ever, but... I really wish Tesla would come out with a more portable battery. Something I could carry around in my pocket so I could power my cell phone, Apple Watch or laser gun.

Until this thing powers my space capsule to Mars, having one on the house will have to do.

can't wait for this to hit the mainstream. could be a massive counties with crap grids, but obvi needs to come down in price a bit.

I love this product/idea, but have to say: On the contrary of the Tesla car, I really dislike this products design. I don't want this odd shaped glossy thing in my apartment. It would -in my opinion- be better if they'd make it something that can easily be hidden in a house.

A couple concerns: 1. Batteries are just about 95% non-recyclable and REALLY bad for the environment long-term, so having more of them doesn't sound awesome to me. 2. It's not exactly ideal to be hoarding all your solar power. This might make a lot of sense in remote areas, but in cities people are usually better off sharing resources/infrastructure (ie. sewer systems that efficiently treat water and use waste rather than individual septic systems that just put everything in the ground) Thoughts?

Well done, Elon. Ties in nicely with $SCTY. Complete the loop and take this battery storage technology to the ISS on one of your rockets.

I like how this man thinks in terms of generations and not years

This will also muddy any elitism for having a Tesla. "Yeah, I've got a Tesla", "Really, I just love my S model. What kind do you have?", "Home battery", "Oh, yeah,...that's cool too..."

Potential prediction: Phase X will be Tesla selling additional battery packs for standard cars. So that when you get home, your car's excess electricity (if you don't drive a Tesla) can be back fed to power your home. Thus it also takes care of situations where solar panels are not "allowed" as well as furthers their battery business and further reduces electrical utility dependency.

I'm excited about the implications for "off-grid" environments. You could own a cabin or small home in the woods thats not hooked up to the grid, although be wired for electricity. Throw your battery in the back of your car, and power up the home with heat and light when you arrive. As long as its easy to install/ un-install at multiple locations.

I hunted this last night. Guess I did it wrong. Tesla Energy: New lithium power ion battery for your home http://www.producthunt.com/r/faa... via @dannyoz7787 on @ProductHunt

A few months ago, i was thinking that why people are not innovating in Battery domain. And, here it is :)