elon musk\'s tesla plans to give thousands of homes batteries: here\'s how it would work
Labor Prime Minister Jay withermere of South Australia announced the results of his vote
Power policy before winning the election
\"Free\" solar panels and Tesla batteries are available for 50,000 households.
Thanks to the man on the right.
Yes, this is the latest gift in an ongoing relationship between Mr withermere and billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk, after the two teamed up to fund the world\'s largest lithium --ion battery (
This is already generating electricity at the South Australian power grid). \"Free?
\"I heard you ask.
They say nothing is certain except death and taxes.
This transaction will involve some of the latter (
Taxpayers of $2 million
Grant and $30 million loan to Tesla)
Plus an important catch
The electricity generated by solar panels and batteries will not be directly owned by the home, but will most likely be sold to them through retailers.
VPP is the fashion term for distributed generation.
Kind of like the Internet. Or bitcoin.
The idea is that all consumers can benefit by sharing the remaining energy that rooftop solar panels generate when not in use.
The key to these systems is smart meters and other smart technologies that can automatically figure out which system generates excess power and whether it can be stored or transferred to another customer.
The South Australia program will see the 5kw solar system installed in each participant\'s home with a 5kw/15kwh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery. They have.
There are several virtual power plant test plans across Australia, including one in South Australia, operated by AGL and subsidized by the federal government.
Do you remember Jay Weatherill tearing off the press conference of Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg?
This was when the AGL plan was launched, which included 1,000 families.
The difference in this latest proposal is its size.
According to the South African government, Tesla plans to eventually expand to about 50,000 families.
Making it 50 times larger than the AGL plan is the largest in the world.
Overall, the distributed energy system will be able to output about 250 MW of electricity, making it more than double the size of the South Australian power grid
The size of the Tesla battery is almost as powerful as the temporary diesel generator installed by the SA Government.
These \"free\" solar panels and batteries will not belong to the participating householders.
First, these systems will be installed on the roof of the 25,000 SA Housing Trust property owned by the SA Government.
Unlike those who go out and pay for their own solar panels and batteries, participants in the program will not be able to benefit from zero
The cost of electricity provided by their solar panels and storage systems.
Instead, a power retailer will be involved in running the program and sell the electricity generated by the solar panels and stored in the batteries to the householder at a discounted price.
According to a preliminary analysis of the SA Government by border economy company Danny Price, retailers should be able to provide participants with electricity prices of approximately 27c/kWh.
Based on the current average retail cost of the home is about 40c/kWh, which is about 30 savings.
It is not clear if those families who choose to install the system on their property will be forced to purchase electricity through the chosen retailer, and if so, how long will they be locked in the contract
In any case, it avoids the huge upfront cost of Trust tenants to install their own solar panels and battery systems.
In addition, the SA government said that each of the state\'s 37,000 Housing Trust tenants will be able to benefit from the retailer\'s discount offers --
Did they install solar panels and batteries on their property.
After testing the Housing Trust housing system, the government hopes to expand the plan to other families from July 2019.
It is not clear whether families who have installed their own solar panels and battery systems will be able to opt in or whether their own initial cost spending will result in further discounts.
Nevertheless, the program should help all consumers, whether or not they are registered as participants.
Retailers running the new system will have up to 250 megawatts of electricity, which can be sold to the grid at peak demand, increasing competition in the market.
Danny Price estimates that this could reduce the wholesale price of electricity by about $15/MWh, saving power consumers around $0. 18 billion a year in electricity bills across the state. Topics:solar-
Energy, Electricityenergy-and-
State utility companiesand-
Regions, elections, consumers
Adelaide-Finance