that are causing climate change. Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduced the world to the “Powerwall,”

a wall-mounted battery for your house which aims to accelerate our transition to clean

solar and wind-power. Before the powerwall, there was no way to store the energy generated

from the panels that capture sunlight on our roofs. So during the day they could give you

the power you needed, but at night, you had to rely on the grid, which gets most of its

electricity from coal, natural gas, and nuclear reactors. There had been some early home batteries

out there, but nothing that was nearly this affordable. But Tesla, which has built thousands

of large, lithium-ion battery packs for its growing electric car business, was able to

produce a similar battery for buildings at a scale that dropped the production costs

dramatically. The lowest capacity model will cost just $3,000. And this is the first generation

of the product--before Tesla’s even completed building its massive new Gigafactory, or any

real competitors have entered the market, events that will surely push the price down

even further, while increasing the energy storage capacity of the Powerwall.

Here’s how it works. When the sun is out, solar panels will power your house and charge

the Powerwall at the same time. And when the sun goes down, this charged battery will kick

in to meet most - or all - of your electricity needs until the sun comes back up again the

next morning. This is game-changing. More and more people will go completely off-grid.

Every building -- whether it’s a home, office, business, warehouse, factory -- they can all

install solar panels and some Powerwalls and instantly see their fossil fuel-generated

electricity needs drop significantly. Not every building will be able to go completely

solar-powered, but most will get pretty close, especially as our appliances become more and

more energy efficient.

And it gets even better. The powerwall will be connected to the Internet and the rest

of the energy grid. Here in Southern California, and most other heavily populated places, the

electricity company charges us a lot more when we use electricity during peak time--that’s

in the afternoon and early evening when the temperatures are warmest and most of us are

home and still awake. The Tesla battery is smart, and knows when electricity is cheapest,

so that’s when it will draw from the grid to charge itself. And then, during peak time

when you need electricity, the battery will power the house. Sometimes, you’ll be able

to sell back unused power to the utility company during peak time to even make a profit. It’s

basically going to make each individual building its own power station.

Overnight, Tesla seems less a futuristic car company, and more like the man who inspired

the company’s name, a revolutionary electricity engineer named Nikola.

Thanks for watching. If you liked this video, help the conversation spread by hitting that

thumbs up button.

For TDC, I’m Bryce Plank.

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