N e w s fro m M o t h e r

MOTHER
EARTH NEWS

Renewable Energy
Charges Forward
ood news continues to roll in
on the renewable energy front.
Earlier this year, we reported
on the steady drop in solar panel prices
and revealed that renewable energy now
costs less than coal power in some areas
(Green Gazette, April/May 2015). O ur
latest news comes from Elon Musk, the
celebrated developer o f the Tesla electric
car. Musk has announced that his com
pany will be manufacturing batteries to
store energy generated by solar and wind
systems, with a predicted price tag of less
than halft\\e current battery costs. This
reduced price point is huge news for the
energy landscape.
Tesla is building a gi
ant factory in Nevada
to ramp up production
o f these lithium -ion
power-storage batteries,
which will be designed
for both electric utili
ties (the Powerpack)
and home-scale setups
(th e P o w e rw a ll).
Many analysts are pre
dicting that this development will be a
crucial game-changer that could ultimate
ly Hooray! end our fossil-fuel addic
tion and the endless wars weve waged to
protect our oil supply. Plus, this develop
ment should finally halt the use of nuclear
power, and slow the insane rush o f frack
ing for natural gas.
The biggest barriers to expanding solar
and wind have been solars daytime-only
capacity and the variability o f wind power.
Better, lower-cost storage batteries are al
ready rapidly resolving these challenges,
and Tesla's new options will be another
exciting leap forward. The use of these rev
olutionary batteries also means utility com
panies can stop building more unpopular,
expensive, giant, long-distance transmis
sion lines and quit relying on natural gas
plants to support the grid during periods
of peak demand. Better battery storage

T H E O R IG IN A L G U ID E T O L IV IN G W IS E L Y

8 0 0 -2 3 4 -3 3 6 8

www.MotherEarthNews.com
Editor-in-Chief C heryl Long
Managing Editor J ennifer K ongs

will give homeowners who dont own solar

or wind systems a new option for backup
power when the grid goes down.
Even before Musk made headlines with
his April 30, 2015, announcement about
the Tesla hom e battery pack, the Rocky
Mountain Institute predicted that rising
retail prices for grid electricity and declin
ing costs for solar PV and batteries mean
that grid-connected solar-plus-battery
systems will be economical w ithin the
next 10 to 15 years for many customers.
Thus, its critical that utilities, regulators
and other stakeholders urgently pursue re
form to embrace solar, batteries and other
distributed energy re
sources as an integral,
optimized part o f the
future grid, rather than
as a threat to that grid.
M u sk has m ad e
dram atic predictions
about his new batter
ies, and some feel hes
being overly optim is
tic. But his storage bat
teries are by no means
the only game in town. Many other kinds
o f batteries are already on, or coming to,
the market, including advanced lead-acid,
sodium-sulfur, many variations o f lithi
um, plus iron-chromium and vanadium
flow batteries. Flow batteries are bulkier
than lithium options, but can last much
longer. Innovative energy solutions are
proliferating these days, and invention is
in the air. Storing energy in compressed
air? O r by making ice? Weve only just be
gun to see where developers imaginations
can take us.
Most analysts say that Musks less expen
sive power-storage batteries, together with
other declines in solar and wind costs, will
disrupt the grid even faster than project
ed. This is great news for those of us push
ing for policies that will reduce greenhouse
gases and thus slow climate change.

Game changer:

New storage
batteries will be
half the cost of
current options.

other

Senior Editor K.C. C om pton

Senior Editor Shelley Stonebrook
Senior Associate Editor R obin M ather
Associate Editor R ebecca M artin
Associate Editor Amanda Sorell
Assistant Editor H annah K incaid
Assistant Editor Laura D ell -H aro
Editorial Interns
Allison E vans Patricia P eterson Alec W eaver
Advisers and Contributors
R ichard Backus Lester R. Brown
D an C hiras Barbara D amrosch G eorge D eV yult
Steve H eckeroth J essica Kellner Vicki M attern
Steve M axwell Barbara P leasant G ary R eysa
Kale Roberts Jo R obinson J oel Salatin
W illiam W oys W eaver Bryan W elch
L inda B. W hite C hristian W illiams
Assistant Group A rt Director M atthew T. Stallbaumer
A rt Direction and Pre-Press
A manda Lucero Kirsten M artinez
T erry P rice Karen R ooman
National Advertising Sales Office
1503 S W 4 2 n d St., Topeka, K S 66609
800-678-5779; fa x 785-274-4316
Advertising Materials Coordinator Lori M athews
Account Executives
M elanie C ox E d D ay T erri K eitel
Jan M eyers R od P eterson M ark Shaw
A ngie Taylor Kelli T erry D enise W iscombe
Classified Advertising C on nie R oberts
1503 S W 4 2 n d St., Topeka, K S 66609
866-848-5416; fa x 785-274-4316
Classifieds@MotherEarthNeivs. com
Publisher Bill U hler
Editorial Director O scar H. W ill III
Director o f Circulation & Marketing C herilyn O lmsted
Director o f Sales Bob L egault
Group A r t Director C arolyn Lang
Director o f Information Technology T im Swietek
D igital Content Manager J en B lack
Newsstand & Production Manager
Bob C ucciniello , 785-274-4401
Founders J o h n

and J ane

Shuttleworth

M o th er E arth N ews is published by Ogden Publications Inc.,

1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609, 785-274-4300.

For subscription inquiries call 800-234-3368.
Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 785-274-4300; fax 785-274-4305.
Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is
undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we
receive a corrected address within two years.
Printed in the U.SA.

FO RTHE
PLAN ET

BBB
------ 1------W
bcorporation.net

MOTHER EARTH NEWS August/September 2015

Copyright of Mother Earth News is the property of Ogden Publications, Inc. and its content
may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright
holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.