So far, specific details are thin on the new battery designed for home use that Tesla’s announcing next week. But just based on what we do know, it’s a pretty big deal. The quest for a good battery that can store home-generated power is kind of like the holy grail for a renewable energy future. This…
The Home Solar plus Energy Storage Revolution Is About to Begin
Home solar batteries from Tesla Motors, which could upset utilities as we know them. Billion dollar solar bonds from SolarCity, backstopped by banking bigshots. Happy Earth Day! After being artificially suppressed for decades, renewable energy developments have accelerated, with excellent timing. Earth Day brought mounting news via Bloomberg that Tesla’s anticipated home solar batteries, hinted at in March…
Home Solar Plus Batteries May Be the Final Nail in Utilities’ Coffins
The utilities are at an existential crossroads. Let’s hope they pick the road leading to grid-connected systems of solar plus batteries, before they lose thousands of customers and billions of dollars. Unlike their larger off-grid counterparts, leaner and meaner grid-connected battery systems could check electricity costs and increase savings no matter what peak retail prices…
How do you catch the sun to make electricity at night? This German inventor has an answer.
He’s electrified his bicycle. He’s electrified his Porsche. When he introduces his dog, Paula, you almost expect him to tell you that he’s electrified her, too. Not yet, but you never know. The engineer from a small town in southwestern Germany is a classic tinkerer. His home is his development lab, and when he’s not…
Elon Musk’s next disruption: residential energy storage
On top of taking the auto industry by storm, Elon Musk might well be on the road to disrupt the electric power distribution industry, as well, developing a battery storage system for the residential market. Tesla’s CEO announced last week that his company is looking to enter the residential energy storage market that is considered…

SolarFeeds Author Jordan Perch
Jordan Perch is a transport analyst and expert in consumer affairs for the automotive industry. He is an author on topics related to public transport, specifically the use of ride-sharing and car-sharing services, and their impact on mass transit. He is a regular contributor to SolarFeeds, the IHS GlobalSpec and DMV.com's blog and a proud owner of a Tesla Model S.
- Web |
- More Posts (5)
Deploying Distributed Energy Storage
Since the market for distributed energy storage is still in its infancy, however, there is a significant need for regulatory guidance and proactive policies to ensure a smooth integration into the existing electrical system. A reportreleased today by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) offers independent insight on how to address these new challenges – and…
With new acquisition, SunEdison makes bold move into energy storage
SunEdison, Inc., the world’s largest renewable energy development company, and Solar Grid Storage LLC, a leader in deploying combined energy storage and solar PV systems, today announced that SunEdison has acquired the energy storage project origination team, project pipeline, and subject to customary consents and assignments, four operating storage projects from Solar Grid Storage. SunEdison now…
Storage Can Capture Benefits Across the Energy Supply Chain
In hundreds of installations and over years of run-time, customer-sited energy storage technology has been proven to offer a multitude of benefits to the electricity supply chain. The challenge and opportunity are that the term “energy storage” can mean different things to different people; more often than not, it’s simply batteries in a box. From…
Tesla charges ahead at the grid storage market
Now in the electric car maker’s most recent earnings call this week, Tesla showed just how far along the company has actually come towards selling batteries for the power grid market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the call that Tesla has already been “bidding on a lot of RFPs [request for proposals],” for utilities…
E.ON ‘forced to act’ on threat from renewables and distributed generation
Energy storage providers could be set to benefit as other “forward-thinking utilities” follow the example of Germany’s E.ON, in reacting to the disruptive threat posed by increasing renewables deployment and distributed generation, according to one analyst. Cosmin Laslau of Lux Research claims in a guest blog for PV Tech’s storage-dedicated sister site, PV Tech Storage,…
Turning Lead Car Batteries into New Solar Panels
Solar photovoltaic technology is being revamped daily with new materials and techniques that make harvesting energy from the sun cheaper and more efficient than ever. A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Angela M. Belcher and Paul T. Hammond, has recently developed solar cells made out of organolead halid perovskite that…
Is the solar panel & battery combo ready to change energy markets?
The big idea right now for solar and batteries is this: put solar panels on your roof, a battery in the backyard (or basement), and become utterly independent from the power grid, using free electricity from the sun. Batteries have long been looked to as a way to store energy solar energy during the day…
Grid Batteries for Wind, Solar Find First Customers
Several new types of battery, each capable of cost-effectively storing the energy output from a wind or solar farm, are finally being hooked up to power grids. The so-called grid batteries could lower the cost of renewable energy by eliminating the intermittency problem that arises when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.…
Which Solar Companies Are Active in the Solar-Plus-Storage Market Today?
Four of the top ten U.S. residential PV installers now offer energy storage, according to new research from Greentech Media Solar-plus-storage, a soon-to-be billion-dollar market in the United States, lacks pure-play vendors. Instead, a large swath of the vendor landscape is made up of existing solar companies allied with energy storage firms, balancing each other’s strengths in…