海角大神

After months of teasing the new endeavor, Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, officially unveiled the carmaker's new battery-storage units Thursday night at an event titled 鈥淭he Missing Piece.鈥澛�

鈥淭oday, Tesla introduces Tesla Energy, a suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities fostering a clean energy ecosystem and helping wean the world off fossil fuels,鈥� the electronic automaker said in a .

Tesla showed off the different power storage systems for personal and industrial use, which are even accessible for utility companies. As the title of the event insinuates, Tesla believes that storage units will help bridge the gap for solar power to be widely used across the world.

鈥淲e鈥檝e obviously been working on building a world-class battery, a super-efficient and affordable way to store energy,鈥� said Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokeswoman, as reported by the New York Times. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just that we鈥檝e been putting that battery in cars most of the time.鈥�

All of the new batteries run on the same type of lithium-ion, software-equipped technology found in Tesla's cars, and can be mounted inside or outside of a building.

For homes, Tesla designed the . Buyers who have solar panels installed on their roofs will get to choose between : the 10 kilowatt-hour pack for $3,500, which Musk says can potentially run a home if the power grid goes down, or the 7 kilowatt-hour pack for $3,000, which is ideal for daily uses. The units are rather large, with a starting weight of 220 pounds, and are about 3-by-4 feet wide and 6 inches thick. All units will come with a 10-year warranty.

鈥淚f you have the Tesla Powerwall, if the utility goes down, you still have power,鈥� Mr. Musk , adding 鈥淭he whole thing is an integrated system that just works.鈥�

For industrial or business use, Tesla created the Powerpack, which is equipped with the largest battery the motor company has ever made. for the storage unit will range from 100 kilowatt hour to 10 megawatt hour and higher. "Our goal here is to change the way the world uses energy at an extreme scale," Musk told reporters at the event, as the Verge reports.

Musk went on to that 鈥渢he Powerpack is designed to scale to infinity,鈥� and you could 鈥渓iterally make this into a gigawatt hour solution.鈥�

have already singed on to use the large-scale energy storing systems.

The Powerwall and Powerpack will be manufactured in Nevada at Tesla鈥檚 Gigafactory, which is still under construction. But Musk hinted that he has big plans for the factory, which he sees more as a product that he hopes to expand. Musk told attendees of the event that with 160 million units, all of the US could be powered, and by building 2 billion energy storage batteries, the whole world could have access to reliable energy.聽

But even as Tesla becomes a leader in the green-energy movement, as Lux Research points out, the electronic carmaker will face certain hurdles before it achieves its ultimate dream.

鈥淭esla has succeeded in pushing down cell and pack costs for stationary energy storage, which will accelerate this market,鈥� said Dean Frankel, an energy storage analyst at Lux Research in a news release. 鈥淗owever, power electronics, installation, and widespread availability of financing remain open questions. The quicker Tesla can build partnerships, make acquisitions, and invest further to address these issues, the better its chance of hitting its hugely ambitious goal of selling 15 GWh of stationary energy storage in 2020.鈥�

While Tesla has become a leader with the current prices for stationary Li-ion packs at $350 a kWh, due in part to its partnership with Panasonic and its upcoming Gigafactory, installation costs 鈥渨ill nearly double the $3,000 price of Tesla鈥檚 entry-level Powerwall unit.鈥� This is obviously problematic for the average consumer and Lux Research believes Tesla will need find a way to drive down these prices.

鈥淐heap cells made in the Gigafactory are only part of the puzzle,鈥� Mr. Frankel went on to explain in the release. 鈥淯nlike electric vehicles, in stationary batteries there is more of a relative cost contribution coming from power electronics, software, and installation. Without more vertical integration 鈥� and perhaps even some acquisitions and Gigafactory-like efforts dedicated to inverters 鈥� Tesla is limiting its growth potential here.鈥�

But the biggest roadblock for Tesla will be working with utility companies on expanding solar storage. As the news release explains, while its partnership with Southern California Edison and Oncor is a good start, to reach the 鈥渉undreds鈥� of power providers needed to make the project truly successful will take time and resources, if the companies are even willing to play along.

Few utilities have taken an interest in the technology thus far and for good reason 鈥� green energy is threatening their monopoly on power. With consumers able to store energy during the day and rely on power providers less and less, the companies 鈥渨ill face declining demand and then bankruptcy,鈥� as the Wall Post reports.

There are already , including the Hawaiian Electric Company, lobbying to halt the progress of solar energy. In Arizona, there is a push for a $50 monthly fee for individuals who use solar, and, last year, Wisconsin approved fees for solar reliant individuals at an average of $182 a year.