What Are The Best Uses For Products Like Tesla's Powerwall?

In the past five years, more and more households have adopted a combination of battery energy storage and photovoltaic systems. These so-called home storage systems (HSS) store excess solar energy during the day and use it at night and at night. The rapid development of home storage systems benefited from the rapid development of lithium-ion energy storage battery technology, the most prominent of which is the Tesla Powerwall.

Lithium-ion technology is frequently being pushed into new frontiers, and those advancements are increasing our potential to live more environmentally friendly and economically savvy lives. In the past decade, the surge in the production of lithium-ion batteries has led to a price drop of 85%, which makes energy storage commercially viable for the first time in history. UBS estimates that the energy storage market in the United States may grow to as high as US$426 billion in the next ten years, of which the residential energy storage market represented by Tesla Powerwall is growing rapidly.

Let's take Tesla's Powerwall, a lithium-ion home battery, for example. The product gained swift popularity and notoriety since it was announced in 2015, and now the first long-term user reviews are trickling in. The reviews are mixed when it comes to the product's usability and financial opportunity, but one thing is universal: the product is a good idea. The Powerwall is a battery bank designed to store electricity from solar panels or other sources, and then act as an emergency power supply or an additional power source during peak electricity usage times — when using the power grid is expensive. 

Using lithium batteries to offset a consumer's power demand isn't a new concept—we offer that solution ourselves—but the availability of products like this can change how people interact with their homes.

By their very nature, products like the Powerwall or BSLBATT's renewable energy solutions and battery bank force people to think about how much electricity they use when they use and how they use it. By thinking about it, they become more conscious consumers; e.g., does it make more sense to drain the lithium-ion battery bank in order to save money on the electric bill, or should that energy be kept in case a storm knocks out the local power supply?

The answers to those questions depend on what type of renewable home energy setup you're using.

Products like Tesla's Powerwall are marketed with one primary benefit: saving people money on their electricity bills by supplementing their daily electricity usage with the energy stored in the lithium batteries. They essentially want people—and businesses—to practice peak shaving in order to save electricity costs. It's a great idea, and it'll help lower infrastructure demand on the power grid.

Other products, like the custom lithium-ion batteries BSLBATT sells, can be used for peak shaving and perform the task well, but our product focus on battery safety, longevity, and reliability also means we can offer unique opportunities for NGOs or other charitable organizations that want to provide renewable power for developing communities.

This difference is primarily because of the battery's chemical composition. There are basically three different lithium chemistries. If the chef adds a little salt or pepper to the recipe, there may be different tastes, so this allows each battery manufacturer to create a unique ingredient to strengthen the lithium battery to achieve their desired effect, such as larger battery capacity or faster charging time. We put safety first and lean toward the side of longer life at the sacrifice of specific energy, energy per unit volume, or mass, which simply means our products need to be larger to provide the same energy as the Powerwall. We do this by utilizing the most robust and thermally stable chemistry available today. Both energy solutions are premium products, but our long-term goals are different. If you compare our composition to a different company, like Tesla, then you'll see that based on the same size battery they can get a lot more energy output than we do, but that energy is sacrificed by battery longevity.

In applications like everyday home power supplies-especially when supplying power to remote areas or developing countries-safety and longevity are paramount.

The reasons are as follows:

In the case that the power system needs to be used continuously for several years, the battery that is more focused on providing more capacity in a smaller size than the lifespan of the battery loses capacity too fast and is financially unreasonable. If you have an NGO that can provide basic electricity to several rural households through a solar battery pack, then you hope that the system can last and withstand the rigorous test of daily use, because products like Powerwall are expensive.

"The improvement in technology has led to the rapid growth of the application of lithium-ion batteries in the energy storage market because lithium-ion batteries have the longest life, productivity, and low-cost battery maintenance characteristics," said Eric Yi, president of BSLBATT. "It is a great thing that smaller battery modules can bring greater capacity, but the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the safety and service life of lithium batteries. We hope to pay more attention to these two aspects, so as to bring Powerwall products with lower cost, higher security and better quality are here."

The initial cost of the BSLBATT lithium battery system is lower than that of the Powerwall, but its service life is several times that of the Powerwall. Because the lithium battery’s heat dissipation problem has caused countless problems such as the reduction of battery life and fires, so BSLBATT has done a better job in the problem of lithium battery heat dissipation. In contrast, using Tesla's battery system means Assuming you use it for daily power supplements, you will lose 30% of the possible power in less than two years of use.

Therefore, almost soon, you will draw an additional 30% of the electricity from the grid and increase your bill. In the absence of a power grid, such as developing countries or remote research stations, you will usually be trapped in a situation where the overall power is low, which actually increases the cost of using energy storage systems for many households.

Deciding how to plan to use products such as Powerwall can help you find the solution that best suits your needs. If you are interested in learning more about how BSLBATT's home or business energy solutions can help you achieve your energy goals, please contact us. As a supplier of lithium batteries and energy storage solutions, our targets are focused on the following markets: home battery backup, microgrid solutions, industrial/commercial energy storage, communications/data center battery energy storage, transportation/utility energy storage systems, and uninterruptible power supply(ups).