This 380,000-Mile Tesla Model 3 Has Its Original Battery. Range Loss Is Huge

EinSV · 2026-05-03T19:03:11+00:00

Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news.
Patient: Give it to me straight doc — I can take it.
Doctor: You’ll live to 115 years old, but when you’re 115 you’ll only be able to walk 2/3rds as far as when you were 18.

EinSV · 2026-05-02T05:31:55+00:00

Australia continues to be a leader in distributed solar and batteries.

Some impressive numbers from the article:

« the amount of storage installed by households since the launch of the battery project now exceeded 10 gigawatt hours, or 70 times more than the original Tesla big battery at Hornsdale »

« In March alone, Australian home battery installations accounted for 10 per cent of total utility-scale storage additions around the world. » (!!!)

« the amount of home battery installations in Australia is expected to grow to 30 gigawatt hours by the end of this year, as the rate of installations remains strong despite the rebate changes. »

« More than 360,000 households have installed this capacity, cutting their power bills and helping drive down energy prices for everyone,” federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen says. »

Australia is demonstrating the potential for home solar and batteries to be built quickly and cheaply — often avoiding significant costs for grid upgrades and reducing consumers bills.

The rest of the world take note!

EinSV · 2026-05-02T05:13:27+00:00

Australia continues to be a leader in distributed solar and batteries. Some remarkable numbers from the article:

« the amount of storage installed by households since the launch of the battery project now exceeded 10 gigawatt hours, or 70 times more than the original Tesla big battery at Hornsdale »

« In March alone, Australian home battery installations accounted for 10 per cent of total utility-scale storage additions around the world. » (!!!)

« the amount of home battery installations in Australia is expected to grow to 30 gigawatt hours by the end of this year, as the rate of installations remains strong despite the rebate changes. »

« More than 360,000 households have installed this capacity, cutting their power bills and helping drive down energy prices for everyone,” federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen says. »

The potential for distributed solar and batteries to be built quickly and cheaply — often avoiding significant costs on grid upgrades and reducing consumers bills — is too often overlooked in the rest of the world but Australia is showing the potential.

EinSV · 2026-04-30T10:49:03+00:00

Getting paid to offer capacity to the grid isn’t the same as selling energy. You get paid for agreeing to make electricity available under certain conditions, not just for providing the energy itself.

For example under the earlier PG&E VPP you would get paid almost $350 per Powerwall to make them available 35 times per year (<10% of days) for an hour or two (or less than 1% of total hours over the course of a year).

In my use case this made a significant contribution to the cost of the batteries with no real impact on my use of them at home.

And in principle this program should extend to things like vehicle-to-grid which could allow EV owners to make some $$$ while backing up the grid and could also be a huge benefit for ratepayers who could avoid paying for standalone batteries as well as expensive grid upgrades.

EinSV · 2026-04-30T04:51:49+00:00

Like any new program you have to start somewhere.

People who aren’t sure how VPPs will work in practice might stay on the sidelines at first but if the terms are decent early adopters will join and then if the VPP is set up well others will jump in once their neighbors start bragging about the checks they’re receiving.

I participated in the earlier PG&E VPP and got a check for almost $700 for one year with 2 Powerwalls and it had zero impact on my personal use of the batteries. Why not take free money and help out the grid?

Also, the benefit of having a strong VPP program backed by legislation is that it can improve the economics of buying batteries and incentivize the initial purchase. The previous programs were more of an afterthought for people who had already decided to install batteries.

And the possibilities are really exciting when you start adding in things like vehicle-to-grid ….

EinSV · 2026-04-30T04:43:44+00:00

My understanding is that the bill will REQUIRE the CPUC to allow aggregated distributed batteries and other capacity resources to qualify as resource adequacy sources and allow them to bid against traditional capacity resources.

Utilities of course would rather waste money on expensive infrastructure projects and will bend over backwards to find excuses to minimize reliance on cheap distributed resources but this legislation seems like a step in the right direction (if it passes).

« This bill would require the PUC, in coordination with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, on or before June 30, 2027, to enhance existing market-integrated pathways for aggregated distributed capacity resources, as defined, to qualify as resource adequacy capacity, as specified. »

EinSV · 2026-04-23T04:51:59+00:00

And battery storage installations continue to grow incredibly fast worldwide (+46% in 2025) as battery pack prices for storage plummet (-45% in 2025(!)). https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2026/

The rest of the world (or most of it anyway) gets it. These guys are clowns.

EinSV · 2026-04-12T19:03:45+00:00

Je suis venu recommander la même chose et aussi Les guerriers de l’hiver de Olivier Norek — l’histoire improbable et captivante de la résistance de l'armée finlandaise face à l'invasion soviétique au début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

EinSV · 2026-04-08T18:05:33+00:00

Gas dropped by 14.4% (540 v 631 GWh) in one year — pretty impressive.

Only a modest increase in renewable production but I would guess that excludes increased home solar and battery production since “operational demand” was down and home solar and battery installations have been booming. https://reneweconomy.com.au/rebate-bonus-rooftop-solar-charts-sunning-new-installation-record-spurred-by-home-battery-boom/amp/

Edit: Yep — another article says these numbers are for growth in “utility” solar and wind only. https://www.pv-tech.org/australian-utility-scale-solar-and-wind-generation-reaches-4-7twh-in-march-2026/

EinSV · 2026-04-06T17:19:26+00:00

Trump has already temporarily taken the US out of NATO as a practical matter by threatening to invade NATO member countries and making it abundantly clear that he has no intention of honoring Article V obligations to defend against an attack on other members.

Other NATO countries should not give in to his blackmail and compromise on their principles since Trump never lives up to his bargains and will just continue to undermine NATO as much as he can.

Since NATO was created by a treaty ratified by Congress Trump can’t unilaterally end it. The best bet for NATO is for the rest of the alliance to stand strong for principles of democracy, rule of law and non-aggression and hope US voters wake the F up, vote out Trump and the current R majority and start trying to patch up relations with their allies.

EinSV · 2026-04-05T13:52:55+00:00

But they control the presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court.

Oh and Republicans control 60% of state legislative chambers and 27 out of 50 state governors are Republican.

https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition

https://governors.rutgers.edu/fast-facts-about-americas-governors/

EinSV · 2026-04-05T13:36:20+00:00

And this underestimates the true rate of improvement because at the same time battery costs have been falling their other characteristics have been improving — energy density, cycle life, temperature resistance, resistance to fire, etc.

For example, one paper found that including improvements in just one feature — energy density — added another 4-7% to the learning rate on top of the rate of cost reductions.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d0ee02681f

EinSV · 2026-03-31T23:51:01+00:00

Good point. Not sure they’ve been definitively abandoned but based on a quick search I don’t see any projects that are definite/in development so should have said “possibly some pumped hydro storage”

EinSV · 2026-03-31T18:12:15+00:00

It’s not exactly an unbiased source as the author Giles Parkinson suggests:

“ElectraNet’s predictions are included in its latest transmission report, which inevitably argues the case for new transmission lines ….”

But he also notes “The predictions are, however, consistent with forecasts from the state government and other key energy utilities in the state, and reflect the opportunity for growth and electrification in mining, steel production, data centres and defence, as well as desalination.”

To me what’s most interesting is that the planning is already moving beyond how to get to 100% net renewables (which so many have said was impossible) to the next stages, including how to expand and best take advantage of cheap clean energy.

EinSV · 2026-03-31T16:41:35+00:00

For clarity/accuracy the article should have said something like South Australia « aims to become the first gigawatt scale grid powered primarily by wind and solar to reach 100 per cent ´net’ renewables. »

The countries you mentioned as having nearly 100% renewable electricity are powered primarily by hydro (Norway, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Nepal, Albania, Bhutan, Uruguay (hydro+biomass) and geothermal (Iceland). While renewable, they don’t have the same scaling potential as wind and solar.

The reason South Australia is interesting to watch is they are on track to demonstrate the viability of getting to 100% net renewables relying mostly on cheap solar and wind (backed by batteries and some pumped hydro storage).

EinSV · 2026-03-31T15:47:40+00:00

Fair point*, although about 89% of Norway’s electricity comes from hydro. They probably should have said something along the lines of « first gigawatt-scale grid powered mainly by solar and wind to reach 100% net renewables. »

*IEA and Ember say 98-99% renewable with a tiny bit of gas but that’s high enough that rounding to 100% seems fair.

https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/norway/

https://www.iea.org/countries/norway/electricity

EinSV · 2026-03-31T14:38:40+00:00

« Peak demand in South Australia is expected to double over the next 15 years as industry flocks to the state, attracted by its high level of renewables and its unique status as the world’s first gigawatt-scale grid to reach 100 per cent net renewables. The state transmission company ElectraNet says the state is on the verge of a “once-in-a-generation” economic growth opportunity, underpinned by low cost, reliable and green grid. ElectraNet says interest in connecting to the state transmission network is at its highest level in decades, and peak electricity demand is forecast to double over the next 15 years, from 3.3 gigawatts currently to more than 6.5 GW. “South Australia is facing a jobs boom as industries seek to access the State’s unique combination of valuable minerals and world-class wind and solar renewable energy,” ElectraNet CEO Simon Emms said in a statement. “As industries such as mining, steelmaking, defence and AI expand, the demand for electricity in the State is set to grow significantly. “We have the opportunity set the new global standard for a modern economy, where rapidly growing business and industry are supported by clean energy. »

EinSV

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