This week Elon Musk
unveiled the Tesla Powerwall and set about a media frenzy. What makes this
product launch different from any other? The fact that it addresses one of the
key challenges facing the future of power, and by extension the future of our
climate: energy storage.
The Tesla Powerwall,
Musk claims, is the "missing piece" to a world of sustainable energy.
It is a battery for the whole home or business, charged by the huge
"fusion reactor in the sky". The product itself is a wall-mounted
device marginally bigger than a standard home flat screen TV which Musk says
owners can mount in their garage or outside their house. At $3,500 USD, much of the discussion
surrounding this breakthrough technology has been regarding the economic
viability for average homeowners: does this product, many are asking, deserve
to be already sold out until mid-2016?
Some have claimed it as revolutionary,
others say it is a "toy for rich green people".
What has been largely unaddressed in many mainstream media, however, is the
human impact.
During the launch
video, Musk makes an interesting comparison. In a lot of developing countries,
rural areas or island states, mobile phones leapfrogged landlines in terms of
usage. The infrastructure of landline telecoms was unnecessary. Likewise, the Tesla
Powerwall will eradicate the need for a large scale energy network for the
parts of the world that do not already have it. A technology that connects,
empowers and enriches the world, whilst at the same time dramatically helping
to curb carbon emissions, seems like an extraordinary product.
nsquared stands for
advancing the world collaboratively, and the Tesla Powerwall is an exceptional
example of realising this vision. The future is looking bright.
