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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Fri May 1, 2015, 11:42 AM May 2015

Did Tesla Just Kill Nuclear Power?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2015/05/01/did-tesla-just-kill-nuclear-power/

Did Tesla Just Kill Nuclear Power?
Jeff McMahon
5/01/2015 @ 8:13AM

It would be almost three hours until Tesla’s big announcement, but inside a Northwestern University classroom near Chicago Thursday night, the famed nuclear critic Arnie Gunderson had the inside scoop:

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was about to announce an industrial-scale battery, Gunderson said, that would cost about 2¢ per kilowatt hour, putting the final nail in the coffin of nuclear power.

Thus Tesla’s big news broke first not amongst the throng of reporters gathered under swirling colored lights at the carmaker’s Hawthorne, Calif. headquarters, but in the middle of a debate on the future of nuclear power sponsored by students agitating for a “Fossil Free NU.” It was Gunderson vs. Jordi Roglans-Ribas, the director of the Nuclear Engineering Division of Argonne National Laboratory.

<snip>

Then Gunderson told the audience of about 80 students and visitors that it was a momentous day in history—because of something that was about to happen in California.

<snip>

Tesla will sell the home battery, the Tesla Powerall, for $3,500, a fraction of the $13,000 price observers had expected, and perhaps more importantly, a fraction of the cost of the $10,000 battery announced earlier this week by European competitors Sungevity and Sonnenbatterie.

<snip>


Bernie Sanders and Elon Musk changed history yesterday.

Expect the fossil and nuclear industries to ramp up their sleazy PR tactics.
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NYC_SKP

(68,644 posts)
1. Storage has always been the key to renewables deployment. Musk's vision is for "distributed storage"
Fri May 1, 2015, 11:49 AM
May 2015

I've never heard the term used before but just as distributed generation is the opposite of centralized generation (the model of the past and of nukes in particular), distributed storage is the alternative to large centralized storage schemes like the Helms Pumped Hydro Storage project, which interestingly was built to store overproduction from Diablo.

That we don't need to wait for PUCs and utilities to build out storage and can deploy distributed home and individual customer storage systems like this is really a game changer.

It puts the power in our hands.

Ha ha ha!

 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
4. It is a start
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:29 PM
May 2015

The cost of the vehicle needs to come down more....it will. The charger needs to get smaller cuz even in my two car garage, it would take up too much room...it will and although 3500 is reasonable that is without installation costs.

It is a great start though.




 

NYC_SKP

(68,644 posts)
5. The Tesla? It's got a lot of competition, more affordable cars to drive.
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:41 PM
May 2015

I'm in a Volt, myself, but look for longer range and lower up front costs.

More than a dozen makers now have an EV or PHEV in their stable, maybe two dozen, I lose count.

Ford, Chevy, Nissan all have very nice pure electrics at reasonable prices but range is still a problem.

Perfect second car for a two car family just the same.

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
2. I'm gratefully gobsmacked by the capacity and the cost of these batteries.
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:17 PM
May 2015

Elon Musk may just possibly save the world.

Stryst

(714 posts)
6. The price of solar panels is just falling through the floor.
Fri May 1, 2015, 02:10 PM
May 2015

Right now panels are running about $0.73/Watt. In the early 80's, panels ran about $5-6/Watt. The battery cost was a real bottleneck. This is starting to approach a cost where people on social security could really think about converting. At the $200/month my family and I pay to our local power company, this is very attractive.

kristopher

(29,798 posts)
7. Can you "kill" a zombie?
Fri May 1, 2015, 11:07 PM
May 2015

IMO Musks' factory is just a cog in the evolving distributed energy system. There are a lot of other things that are going to be part of the whole picture. For example, without efficiency improvements to homes these batteries don't accomplish much on their own. But, combined with the net-zero home building concept and properly designed heating and cooling systems that also serve as energy storage the battery packs become an integral part of the whole.

What I think they'll do more than anything else is bring attention to the path that is open to us and show that it's an affordable realistic course to take. Once the possibility of a different way of meeting energy needs becomes real in people's minds, they will then begin to appreciate the massive cultural advantages that go along with energy freedom.

Stuart G

(38,365 posts)
8. It may have dented NP...(nuclear power) but too many vested interests.
Mon May 4, 2015, 07:59 PM
May 2015

Lots of vested interests in NP. Time will tell..

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