Elon on Solarcity and Tesla (national clean energy summit)

[jcstp]

NCES 5.0 (Part 2) on National Clean Energy Summit 5.0

[Discoducky]

Thanks for forwarding!

[doug]

Cool. Introduced by Chris Paine. Not much new except the announcement of SolarCity doing installs at Walmarts.

Here's an article on it: SolarCity to install solar panel and battery combo for Walmarts -- Gigaom.com

SolarCity will install solar panels combined with batteries for energy storage at Walmart stores, according to SolarCity Chairman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the National Clean Energy Summit in Vegas on Tuesday. SolarCity and Walmart already had a substantial partnership, including solar panels installed at a newly announced 60 stores in California, but this is the first time I’ve heard that batteries will be involved for some of the installations.

[Lloyd]

Cool. Introduced by Chris Paine. Not much new except the announcement of SolarCity doing installs at Walmarts.

Here's an article on it: SolarCity to install solar panel and battery combo for Walmarts -- Gigaom.com

Why would a wallmart need batteries?? Perhaps something to do with Tesla charging?

[ckessel]

Why would a wallmart need batteries?? Perhaps something to do with Tesla charging?

The solar cells are for powering the store. The batteries are stored energy for non-daylight power.

[Lloyd]

The solar cells are for powering the store. The batteries are stored energy for non-daylight power.

If it is a grid tied system, the batteries are not really necessary. The grid is your bank and battery! Emergency Power???

[ckessel]

If it is a grid tied system, the batteries are not really necessary. The grid is your bank and battery! Emergency Power???

Value as emergency power is one of the things Elon mentions in the video.

[VolkerP]

Elon is clear that the way to grow solar into a major part of electricity supply is via storage batteries. He describes storage batteries with a high value as emergency power source as an entry field where batteries make economic sense on their own. Keep the deep freeze running overnight in case of power outage or throw away $1m in food store inventory.

Edit: ckessel beat me to answer Lloyd. well done!

[GSP]

Humm. Solar City will be doing installs at a bunch of Wal-Marts. Wall-Mart stores probably have healthy (high power) grid connections that could add a Supercharger or two. The installs will include batteries, which could shave peak loads and reduce the demand charges that Wal Mart pays. Big Supercharger announcement comming soon, "as soon as some equipment is installed....". Humm.

GSP

PS. But, who wants to spend an hour at Wal-Mart while their car charges up?

[Citizen-T]

Humm. Solar City will be doing installs at a bunch of Wal-Marts. Wall-Mart stores probably have healthy (high power) grid connections that could add a Supercharger or two. The installs will include batteries, which could shave peak loads and reduce the demand charges that Wal Mart pays. Big Supercharger announcement comming soon, "as soon as some equipment is installed....". Humm.

GSP

Wal-Marts often have a McDonald's, Starbucks, or Subway inside where you could spend some time while your car charges...

My gut says that this Wal-Mart thing and the Supercharger announcement are unrelated, but you make a good case. If someone from Tesla is reading this, you might want to pass it on.