Tesla’s Household Battery System

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batteries, Elon Musk, energy storage, grid scale energy storage, lithium ion batteries, solar, Tesla

Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors company officially announced the upcoming release of a product, a 7 or 10 kWhr household battery that it calls the Powerwall:

http://techgenmag.com/2015/05/02/will-teslas-powerwall-shake-up-the-solar-energy-industry/

The rechargeable Lithium ion based battery leverages Tesla’s current expertise and manufacturing resources in this area for it’s electric cars, and targets owners of residential solar panels.

In states like Arizona and Wisconsin where there will be significant fees on solar owners to hook up to the grid, owning your own source of energy storage to deal with solar intermittency will look more and more attractive to solar-owners going forward.

You can see a presentation announcing Tesla’s new battery system and providing more details here:

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Solar-Powered Flight around the world

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airplane, lithium ion batteries, patience, solar, Solar Impulse

The Solar Impulse 2 is a solar-powered airplane that recently embarked on a voyage to fly around the world, taking off on the first leg of it’s voyage from Abu Dhabi, UAE. The plane plans to stop in NYC. Perhaps a good opportunity for a group field trip?

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31812935

The plane is 72 m long, contains 17,000 solar cells on the tops of its wings, and is able to fly through the night thanks to Li-ion batteries.

Planned flight path for the Solar Impulse 2. (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31812935)

You can keep track of the progress of the plane here:

http://www.solarimpulse.com/