Tesla Could Help Customers Go Off the Grid. We know about the falling cost of solar the rising cost of poles and wires. The new element is the falling cost of battery storage. Tesla's announcement, that it plans a $5 billion "gigawatt" scale battery manufacturing facility that will bring down the cost of batteries by more than half - brings it much closer to reality. "If customers sought to have two days' worth of power storage (to protect against poor solar output), they would install 38 kWh of batteries. At a capital cost of $125/kWh, the capital cost of the batteries would be $4,700. Including an additional $300 in costs for software and hardware that can manage the interface between solar panels, household power demand and the storage system, the total storage cost would be $5,000.
Electric cycles, bikes and 'tuks' get traction. Despite America's love affair with Harley-Davidsons, electric motorcycles - as well as e-bicycles - are revving up U.S. sales. Zero, the largest U.S. manufacturer of e-motorcycles, has boosted production from fewer than 100 units in 2010 to more than 2,000 this year, says Scott Harden, the company's vice president of marketing. Compared to gas-powered counterparts, he says Zeros are cheaper to operate — about a penny per mile — and don't make noise, fumes or vibrations. "It's almost a magic-carpet-like ride," Harden says, noting Zeros can go 171 miles per charge in the city.
Sources: Daily Climate, rawstory.org.
Paul Brown is a retired neuroscience professor whose primary interests are human rights, overpopulation, mass extinction, global warming, and the military-industrial complex. Links to all his Before It’s News articles are at http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/pages/189/210/stories.html.
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