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Amazon Echo is designed around your voice. It's always on—just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it detects the wake word. You can pick Alexa or Amazon as your wake word. Echo is also an expertly tuned speaker that can fill any room with immersive sound.

All Power On Earth !

 

Building on his empire in electric cars and solar energy, Elon Musk now aims to transform how homes and businesses use electricity.

Musk introduced a new line of residential and commercial batteries late Thursday in a dramatic announcement at the automaker's design studio in Hawthorne. He outlined a vision of off-the-grid homes and businesses and remote villages powered by sunshine.

“We are talking about trying to change the fundamental energy infrastructure of the world,” Musk told a crowd of about 1,000 Tesla faithful. “What we will see is something similar to cellphones and land lines where cellphones actually leapfrogged land lines.”

Providing efficient cost-effective energy storage will unlock the potential of renewable energy sources such as wind and water, allowing society to slash carbon emissions and fight climate change, Musk said. 

 

 

 

Electric introduction at the Tesla Design Studio

Jerome Adamstein / Los Angeles Times

 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduces a new line of residential and commercial batteries in a dramatic announcement at the automaker's design studio in Hawthorne.

 

CAPTIONElectric introduction at the Tesla Design Studio

Jerome Adamstein / Los Angeles Times

Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduces a new line of residential and commercial batteries in a dramatic announcement at the automaker's design studio in Hawthorne.

But in the near term Musk's vision may run up against the realities of the marketplace, analysts said.

Most U.S. residential customers don't have a need for backup power except during a blackout, said Dean Frankel, an analyst at Lux Research. Batteries make sense only for homes served by a utility that allows customers to pay lower rates for energy at certain times of the day and the year, when power demand wanes, he said.

That's how many businesses already buy power. Buying storage batteries allows them to buy less expensive power at night and use it during the day when demand and rates are highest.

Tesla is already lining up big businesses as customers. It is conducting test programs with retailing giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Amazon is rolling out a 4.8-megawatt-hour pilot at a data center in Northern California.

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“Batteries are important for both data center reliability and as enablers for the efficient application of renewable power,” said James Hamilton, an Amazon engineer. “They help bridge the gap between intermittent production, from sources like wind, and the data center's constant power demands.”

The batteries make the most sense for homeowners with solar power. Excess energy can be used to charge the batteries for use at night or on cloudy days. But solar users remain connected to the grid, and many already get credited by their utility for any surplus power they produce.

The automaker's first product will be a $3,500 Tesla Powerwall, which will store 10 kilowatt-hours of power. The typical home uses about 30 kWh a day. It is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery based on the same technology that powers Tesla's Model S sport sedan. 

A less powerful version will sell for $3,000, not including installation. Both will be slim panels, about 6 inches thick, that can attach to the wall of a garage or home.