{"id":71872,"date":"2015-05-01T10:35:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T14:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=71872"},"modified":"2015-05-01T10:45:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T14:45:18","slug":"batteries-the-power-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2015\/05\/batteries-the-power-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Batteries: The Power of the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"
May 1, 2015<\/div>
\r\n<\/div><\/div>

By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"Batteries:<\/p>\n

By Tim Maverick<\/a>, Commodities Correspondent<\/em><\/p>\n

Elon Musk is at it again.<\/p>\n

Most casual observers thought the giant lithium-ion battery Gigafactory<\/a> being built by Tesla Motors <\/strong>(TSLA<\/a>) was all about the electric car market.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 mostly true. But it\u2019s also about so much more.<\/p>\n

Musk also plans to use the Gigafactory to produce batteries that can power private homes, and even larger structures.<\/p>

\r\n
\r\n

Free Reports:<\/p><\/div>\r\n

\r\n

<\/a>\r\n\t Get Our Free Metatrader 4 Indicators<\/u><\/b><\/a> - Put Our Free MetaTrader 4 Custom Indicators on your charts when you join our Weekly Newsletter<\/p>

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

<\/a>\r\n\t Get our Weekly Commitment of Traders Reports<\/u><\/b><\/a> - See where the biggest traders (Hedge Funds and Commercial Hedgers) are positioned in the futures markets on a weekly basis.<\/p>

\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n
<\/div>\n

The company\u2019s Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, believes the market for stationary batteries \u201ccan scale faster than automotive,\u201d and could account for up to 30% of the Gigafactory\u2019s battery output.<\/p>\n

Rumors about the company making the major shift into stationary batteries have been around for a while. But, they weren\u2019t confirmed until the evening of April 30 by Musk at a Tesla event.<\/p>\n

Storage and the New Grid<\/h2>\n

What\u2019s so big about this news is that these batteries may very well become a key component in the grid of the future.<\/p>\n

More and more homes, businesses, and utilities are using renewable energy. But the major problem with energy sources, like solar and wind power, is that power generation can be intermittent.<\/p>\n

These batteries can be used to combat the surging nature of renewable energy by storing electricity during peak productions times and then releasing it when it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

The battery system, unveiled by Tesla yesterday, is similar to what has already been available to about 300 customers of Solar City<\/strong> (SCTY<\/a>), a company that Musk chairs. These units can be leased for an initial outlay of $1,500, with a payment of $15 per month.<\/p>\n

Musk unveiled two batteries for the home: the 10-kilowatt capacity Powerwall and the 7-kilowatt capacity Powerpack. The cost is $3,500 and $3,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

The Powerwall is intended to provide back-up power for the home while the Powerpack can be used to run everyday refrigerators and TVs.<\/p>\n

In the corporate world, Tesla battery back-up systems have already been installed by both Apple <\/strong>(AAPL<\/a>) and Google <\/strong>(GOOGL<\/a>) at their corporate campuses. The company has also launched a pilot program with Wal-Mart <\/strong>(WMT<\/a>). No price was stated by Musk for the business products.<\/p>\n

Currently, it\u2019s believed that these corporate customers are shaving 20% to 30% off their monthly electric bills.<\/p>\n

Readers may be wondering why Musk is unveiling these systems now<\/em>, when Tesla has already tested them so extensively.<\/p>\n

Well, Musk is no fool\u2026 He sees a very big market about to open up.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s Vision<\/h2>\n

California\u2019s Public Utilities Commission initiated an energy storage mandate in October 2014 that requires the state\u2019s utilities to have at least 1.3 gigawatts of electricity storage capacity by 2020.<\/p>\n

Other states are sure to follow California\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

Already, some electric grid operators in Texas and New York have begun using batteries for energy storage to smooth out the flow of electricity over transmission lines.<\/p>\n

The move toward energy storage is gaining momentum around the world, too. Navigant Research forecasts that global revenue from grid-scale energy storage may exceed $68 billion by 2024.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget about the home-use market.<\/p>\n

Simon Moores of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates that Tesla could produce enough lithium-ion batteries by 2020 to power 3.5 million homes.<\/p>\n

Being the premier player in batteries has apparently been Elon Musk\u2019s plan all along.<\/p>\n

In Elon Musk\u2019s future, everyone will have home and car batteries that they plug in to charge and that are connected to the grid digitally, making blackouts a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Analyst Ravi Manghani of GTM Research said of Musk and Tesla, \u201cThey\u2019re not just car makers. They\u2019re part of the electricity network. At least, folks in the energy industry are very well aware of Tesla as a battery maker.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as Simon Moores said, Musk is making Tesla the first fully integrated and diversified battery company.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if that is a wise move, and if Elon Musk is mentioned in the same breath as Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

And the chase continues,<\/p>\n

Tim Maverick<\/p>\n

The post Batteries: The Power of the Future?<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com By Tim Maverick, Commodities Correspondent Elon Musk is at it again. Most casual observers thought the giant lithium-ion battery Gigafactory being built by Tesla Motors (TSLA) was all about the electric car market. That\u2019s\u2026 mostly true. But it\u2019s also about so much more. Musk also plans to use the Gigafactory to produce batteries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71874,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71872\/revisions\/71874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}