Photo Post #3: Vienna, Austria

At a Park in Vienna, Austria. In the distance, an old WW2 Bunker still standing. © Chris Besserer

Tesla Unveils Home Battery to Store Power

Tesla announced an entirely new product line yesterday that, surprise, was not a car. Owner Elon Musk showcased Tesla's new push into home power storage with the unveiling of what is called, "The Powerwall." Essentially, it's a large $3,500 home battery that homeowners and businesses can use to store excess power for use when they need at a later time. This ultimately provides savings on energy costs.

As Elon Musk put it during his presentation, this product may have the potential to, "fundamentally change the way the world uses energy, at the extreme scale." However, before that becomes a reality, and considering this is an entirely new market for Tesla to be entering, there will obviously be speed-bumps as this technology progresses down the road into mainstream use. Just as Teslas are hard to spot on the road today, Powerwalls will be tough to spot in the garage. Let's take a look at a list of some immediate concerns and benefits that comes to mind:


                1.  The life span of the battery itself. After what period of time will owners have to replace the battery due to the diminishing returns on efficiency? Over time, the battery will lose efficiency and each charge will add less and less power to the battery. Think of the first charge you get on your new phone compared to one year into use. If you find yourself constantly having to charge your phone, that's because the battery inside has lost a portion of it's energy capacity. The same would hold true of this home battery. Tesla is offering a 10 year warranty on the product, so I'm assuming that they will replace the battery for free during that time if any issues arises. So $3,500 may be good for at least 10 years. 

                2. How much money will this actually save the consumer? The average cost of electricity in the US is somewhere around 10-12 cents per kWh. If your house consumers 1000 kWh per month, you're paying a little over $100. That's $1200 per year in electricity. So, even if you can sell back electricity to the utility companies, installing a battery and solar panels on the roof still costs many times what you would be saving. The building of the Gigafactory is one way Tesla is going to bring down installation costs, but until there are substantial improvements in cost reduction on both products (or further tax subsidies), these products are only possible for a select market. It is just not economically feasible for the average American household. 

                3. Environmental Benefits. This could potentially save large amounts of waste energy that is produced on the grid. Power plants have no storage capacity, and a power plant is constantly cranking out energy. If demand is lower than supply, that excess energy is being wasted. However, if there is a place to store that energy in batteries, this energy can be used later at night or some other date. Thus, energy is being used more efficiently.

                4. Backup Power. With Hurricans and large storms becoming more and more frequent, the need for backup power will increase. Can batteries take the place of what gas generators provide now for those worried about losing power during a storm or blackout?

               5. Efficiency for Utilities. Is it possible utility companies put up some capital to have these installed in residential homes? Thus, instead of drawing power from the grid during peak hours, homeowners or the utility company could draw energy out of the batteries. There would be less strain on the energy grid as there is less demand on "just in time" energy delivery. This would be a way in which both utility companies and homeowners could save, as the cost of electricity is more expensive both to consumer and produce during peak usage hours, so a reduction in usage during peak hours is a benefit to both.

Overall, this is a great step in the direction of a sustainable future. It's not hard to imagine a world where each home has the ability to generate electricity from the sun and store excess during the day with the ability to use that stored energy at night or during cloudy days. A world of renewable, off the grid energy, that is freely captured from the sun. I do like the sound of that.

Vindication: Twitter Earnings Disapoint

Quick preface video before diving in.

In February I wrote here saying Twitter was overvalued as important metrics such user growth were quite lackluster. While writing that article, the stock was rallying and hit a cool $48 per share, rising even further, breaking past $50-$51 before finally plummeting following yesterday's earnings release. Today, the stock is down another 9%, hovering around $38.50.

During the previous earnings reports, user growth was the disappointing aspect, but at least the revenue growth and earnings were solid. Financials were better, growth was not. This time around, Twitter disappointed on all fronts, even missing it's own revenue estimates. There are lots of points to touch on, but I just want to focus on the new product developments from twitter. In my opinion, Facebook, Instagram, Yik Yak, and Snapchat are leaving Twitter in the dust when it comes to new features. The results show in the user growth. These companies blow Twitter out of the water in terms of daily users. There is no way that people are going to join Twitter in the same way that Facebook or Instagram were able to attract users. If you are not at the forefront of new technology, you can easily fall to the wayside like Blackberry or MySpace, and this is especially true in the realm of social media.

Last post I spoke about the lack of new product releases on the platform. Well, since that time Twitter has actually gone IN REVERSE. Instead of adding new features, Twitter has gotten rid of some aspects of that app. For instance, the activity feed that showed you what people you follow were doing on twitter. On this section, you were able to look what tweets people were favoriting and who they had recently followed. That's gone. Instead, they combined all aspects of the app into just the homepage of tweets and a search feature, which shows what is trending on twitter. That's it. In fact, the biggest innovation seems to be the "while you were away" feature, which shows tweets that you may have missed since you last logged in. Meaning, if I haven't been on twitter in 24 hours, it will show me tweets that were happening 18-24 hours ago, in a "while you were away" section. This is a worthless feature. Twitter is all about the PRESENT and BREAKING NEWS. I don't log onto twitter to see what someone tweeted in the past. I check my feed when there the World Cup is on, or the NBA Finals is ongoing, when there is unrest in Baltimore and I can get a live feed on the situation, when there is an economic summit and so on. The entire premise of that feature is flawed. Twitter is a news site. It's not about individuals or people, it is entirely premised on events. In that sense, it is not a typical social media site, where the focus is on each person and that person's long term profile. Twitter is short term oriented. I'm not sure where the company goes from here, but I don't believe it's moving in the right direction at the moment.

It might be time Dick Costolo found the exit. Until there are significant product improvements, the long term prospects of the company don't appear to be as positive as the current valuation suggests.

Photo Post #2: Morocco

Picture I took of Aït-Benhaddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while in Morocco.  © Chris Besserer

Photo Post #1: Florence, Italy

Florence at night. Taken from atop Piazzale Michelangelo in Spring 2014. © Chris Besserer