The People Who Brought You Fiery Exploding Electric Cars Now Bring You Solar Batteries For Your Home

 Tesla Announces Low-cost Batteries for Homes

Elon Musk the chief executive of Tesla Motors, the electric car company that brought us very expensive limited edition four-wheeled portable electric fireplaces,  has announced its entry into the energy market, unveiling a line of low-cost solar batteries for homes, businesses and utilities hailing it's new direction toward sustainable energy.

"The batteries, which will retail at $3,500 in the US, were launched on Thursday at a Tesla facility in California by the company’s ambitious founder, Elon Musk, who heralded the technology as “a fundamental transformation [in] how energy is delivered across the earth”.

Wall-mounted, with a sleek design, the lithium-ion batteries are designed to capture and store up to 10kWh of energy from wind or solar panel. The reserves can be drawn on when sunlight is low, during grid outages, or at peak demand times, when electricity costs are highest.

Musk also unveiled a larger “Powerpack”, a 100kWh battery block to help utilities smooth out their supply of wind and solar energy - which is generated intermittently - or to pump energy into the grid when demand soars. 

He said on Thursday about two billion Powerpacks could store enough electricity to meet the entire world’s needs. “That may seem like an insane number,” he said. “But this is actually within the power of humanity to do.”

Tesla is currently taking orders for the systems, with the first units expected to ship in August.

No word from environmentalist on the hazards of millions of pounds of used lithium-ion batteries containing various hazardous materials, including heavy metals and acids that can pose serious environmental risks to Mother Earth.