Full article at:The setting is decidedly modest: a utility room in a red-brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wales. But if the hype turns out to be right, this may be the starting point for an energy revolution in the UK.
Householder Mark Kerr has become the first British owner of a Tesla Powerwall, a cutting-edge bit of kit that the makers say will provide a “missing link” in solar energy.
Like many owners of solar panels, Kerr and his family have a basic problem. They tend to be out at work and school when the sun is shining and the 16 solar panels on the roof of their home in Cardiff are producing power.
The excess they miss out on is fed into the grid and they make a return on it but it does not seem right that they do not get to use the power from their panels.
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However, from now, energy produced but not used during the day will charge the Powerwall and can then be used to provide them with the energy they need when they’re at home and their lights, music centres, computers, televisions and myriad other devices need feeding.
A self-confessed tech-head and an electrician by trade, Kerr could hardly contain his excitement when the Powerwall arrived. “This is the future, definitely,” he said. “For me this is the logical next step. We have the solar panels but we need a way to make best use of the power they produce.”
“Me and my family are all out in the day, and we are not making use of the enormous amount of clean energy that our solar panels produce. The battery will allow us to store the energy we don’t use in the day to use when we need it in the evenings.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/environm...lls-uks-first-tesla-powerwall-storage-battery
