Energy
Tesla Powerwall advocates fight proposed ban on in-home lithium ion battery storage systems in Australia
Battery storage systems are exceedingly popular in Australia, which has some of the highest energy costs in the world. Battery storage systems like the Tesla Powerwall are seen as the answer to high electricity costs when coupled with a rooftop solar installation. There are currently 1.6 million homes in Australia with rooftop solar and the majority of those home owners say they are interested in adding battery storage to help them reduce the amount of electricity they draw from the grid.
On February 13, a report leaked in the Australian press saying that Standards Australia, a non-governmental group similar to Underwriters Laboratories, was about to recommend that any storage devices using lithium ion cells not be installed inside homes but rather in free standing kiosks or bunkers added to the exterior of buildings.
According to Australia’s RenewEconomy, the new standard would add thousands of dollars to the price of a complete solar power system and imperil what is considered to be a multi-billion dollar business opportunity. Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes there could be as many as 6 million residential storage battery installations in Australia in the next 15 years.
The leaked report created a whirlwind of protest. No other country has such restrictions on storage battery installations. John Grimes, head of the Australian Solar Council, says that other countries like Japan and the United States do not have bans on lithium ion storage batteries in homes. He adds that there are already 30,000 such devices in Germany, where lithium ion devices are banned only in sleeping areas.
Apparently Standards Australia grew concerned when reports surfaced that the Samsung Galaxy Note had a disturbing tendency to burst into flames. That device has now been banned from all commercial aircraft whether in carry on or checked luggage.
The proposed rules could have a devastating effect on a virtual power plant program being promoted by AGL Energy in South Australia. That concept would link up to 1000 home solar systems together with a sophisticated digital control network designed to manage each system remotely and maximize the efficiency of the entire microgrid.
Australia is ripe for solar power development because of the abundance of sunshine it receives every day. In fact, there is already a planned community near Melbourne, Australia that has been dubbed Tesla Town because every house has a rooftop solar system mated to a Tesla Powerwall storage battery. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is one of those Australians who has a 14.5 kW rooftop solar and battery storage system installed at his home.
Suburb dubbed “Tesla town” in Australia will have solar, Tesla’s Powerwall and EV charging in every home.
Some people have expressed concerns that owners of electric cars with lithium ion batteries such as the Tesla Model S and Model X might be prevented from parking their cars in their garages if the Standards Australia rules are adopted.
LG Chem and Tesla are the two leading storage battery suppliers in Australia. Both use lithium ion battery cells, as do the products from Sony, GCL, BYD, Panasonic and Samsung. Companies that offer storage batteries that do not use lithium ion cells include Sonnenbatterie and Enphase (lithium iron phosphate batteries), Astralia’s Redflow (zinc bromine flow batteries), Ecoult (lead acid batteries), and Aquion, which uses ionically charged water molecules as its storage medium.
The storm of complaints has forced Standards Australia to rethink its position even before its new rules were officially announced. On February 14, it released a statement denying it is proposing a ban on lithium ion batteries in homes. It said that the public discussion period for its proposed rules would now begin in April instead of later this month and would extend for 9 weeks instead of the usual 6.
“Standards Australia is working with stakeholders to develop a new draft Australian Standard AS/NZS 5139, Electrical Installations –Safety of battery systems for use in inverter energy systems that will enable the safe installation of battery energy storage systems,” the organization said in a statement. “It is proposed that the draft document will contain provisions for:
- Installation requirements for all battery systems connected to inverter energy systems, covering all battery types
- Mitigating hazards associated with battery energy storage system installations
- Classifying batteries based on hazards, and not chemistry type
Those are reasonable and sensible proposals, considering that Australia currently has no national standards governing the installation of residential solar systems, which leaves consumers open to shoddy work by poorly trained contractors. The best defense against charlatans is to let Tesla manage the entire process. It uses only trained, certified installers and stands behind each installation with its reputation for quality and customer service.
Interested in solar? Get a solar cost estimate and find out how much a solar system would cost for your home or business.
Elon Musk
Google just picked SpaceX for its first step into orbital AI
Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher AI satellite on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare next week.
Google is about to put its own AI chips into orbit for the first time, and it is paying SpaceX to get them there.
The company said Thursday that the first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher, its research effort to find out whether space can host large-scale AI computing, will fly next week on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
The satellite, called MVP, is about the size of a refrigerator and carries four of Google’s Tensor Processing Units, the same chips Google runs in its ground data centers. Google originally planned to launch two custom satellites in 2027, but chose to move faster by integrating its chips into a satellite.
MVP’s solar panels supply about one kilowatt of power, and Google will run Gemini models on the TPUs only in bursts of roughly 15 minutes before the chips shut down so the radiators can shed heat. In a blog post, Google said its Trillium TPUs survived vibration testing that mimicked sustained launch loads of up to 10g, with individual components seeing 50 to 100g, and handled a radiation dose greater than a five year mission would deliver.
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Next week’s flight, slated for October 1, follows a relationship that became public in May, when Teslarati reported that Google was in talks with SpaceX for a launch deal tied to orbital data centers. Google also holds a stake of roughly 6% in SpaceX.
The two companies are chasing the same idea from very different starting points. SpaceX’s own orbital compute program is built around the AI1 satellite, a roughly 70 meter structure derived from Starlink V3 hardware that is designed for 150 kW of peak compute, about 150 times the power MVP will draw. Elon Musk has brushed off concerns about crowding orbit with those satellites, and SpaceX is building its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, to produce them, targeting an annualized rate of about 1 GW of space compute by the end of 2027.
Musk also posted on X on Thursday that “the amount of compute in space will obviously round up to 100% of all compute.”
Google has been more cautious in public. Its research estimates that launch prices need to fall below about $200 per kilogram before an orbital data center can compete with a ground facility on energy cost, a threshold the company believes could be reached around the mid 2030s. The Suncatcher team has said it expects the effort to remain a project rather than a product for years, which leaves the first real test of its hardware riding on a rocket from the company with the most aggressive timeline in the field.
Energy
Tesla Semi factory is getting a celebration nobody expected
Tesla will inaugurate its Nevada Semi factory September 24, five months after production quietly began ramping.
Tesla says it will officially inaugurate its new Semi factory in Nevada next month. The Tesla Semi account posted the announcement on X, sharing a graphic titled “Semi Rollout” with a date of September 24. No further details were given about the format of the event or who would attend.
While Tesla’s dedicated Semi plant in Sparks, adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada, opened back in April, with the first trucks rolling off the high volume line on April 29, the timing for the factory inauguration comes at a surprise. The ribbon cutting event five months into production is a break from how Tesla has usually handled its other factories, where the first truck or car off the line typically served as the milestone moment.
Inauguration of new Semi factory in Nevada next month pic.twitter.com/a8kAlxrOOn
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) August 24, 2026
The 1.7 million square foot factory was built as part of a $3.6 billion expansion Tesla announced in early 2023, and it shares a site with the battery cell lines that feed the Semi’s structural pack, a decision meant to remove the supply bottleneck that delayed the truck for years. The plant is designed for 50,000 trucks a year at full ramp. Semi program director Dan Priestley has said production “is now ramping” rather than claiming it has reached scale.
Nine years passed between the Semi’s 2017 unveiling and this stage of production, with the truck slipping from an original 2019 target through hand built pilot units for PepsiCo and a slow build out of the Nevada plant. An inauguration event now gives Tesla a stage to talk up that ramp and reset expectations for how many trucks it can begin delivering at scale.
The September date also lines up with the Semi’s next milestone. Tesla confirmed the truck is heading to Europe with a full unveiling at the IAA Transportation trade show in Hannover, Germany, running September 15 through 20. Between the Nevada event and the Hannover reveal, Tesla has roughly a week and a half in September to make the case that the Semi is now a truck being built and sold on two continents rather than tested in a handful of fleets.
Tesla Energy has introduced the Powerwall Lease in conjunction with Tesla Electric, making the service available in Texas. This new option delivers whole-home backup power using two Powerwall units for a net monthly cost of $35 after credits, accompanied by a low fixed electricity rate.
Under the lease terms, customers pay a one-time order fee of $100. The base lease payment for the two Powerwalls is approximately $122 per month during the first year, subject to a 3 percent annual escalator thereafter. Enrollment in a qualifying Tesla Electric Backup plan or Virtual Power Plant plan provides an $87 monthly credit.
Powerwall Lease is now available with Tesla Electric in Texas
Whole-home backup for $35/month, with a low fixed electricity rate
– Two Powerwalls, $0 installation
– Storm Watch outage protection
– One app to manage it all pic.twitter.com/oTzqc6K3aF— Tesla Energy (@teslaenergy) August 13, 2026
This credit lowers the effective cost to roughly $35 per month plus applicable tax.
Installation of the standard system carries no additional charge. The package features Storm Watch for outage protection and allows complete management through a single Tesla application. The system supplies continuous whole-home backup capability.
The Powerwall system enables households to maintain electricity during severe storms that disrupt the utility grid. When outages occur, the batteries automatically provide seamless backup power to the home.
Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants
Tesla Storm Watch monitors weather forecasts and ensures the units are fully charged ahead of anticipated severe weather events so that power remains available throughout the disruption, keeping lights, refrigeration, and other essential systems operating without interruption.
Availability is restricted to select Texas locations where retail electric choice exists. Participants must lease exactly two Powerwall units and maintain continuous enrollment with Tesla Electric. Solar panels cannot be included under this particular lease arrangement.
The monthly credit activates automatically once the system is installed, receives permission to operate, and enrollment is confirmed. To retain the credit, customers are required to stay enrolled in Tesla Electric and fulfill all program conditions.
Nonstandard installations that involve electrical upgrades or special permitting may lead to extra expenses and might impact eligibility for the credit, so be sure to check with either your installer or Tesla to ensure you will still qualify.
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