Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/781893
AD SALES REP WANTED! Commission-based Must have ad sales experience Whole Life Times 310.425.3056 sales@wholelifemagazine.com city of angels and the heat factor, or reduced effi ciency because tiles are too close to the house. "I know Elon Musk is working on resolving those two challenges," Salahi says, predicting that the Tesla tiles will be available in one or two years. Storage Innovations When people fi rst started installing solar on houses, systems lacked a storage solution. Homeowners used solar energy to fuel their houses in real time. Extra energy went back into the grid. Early attempts to create batteries that could store solar power were disappointing. "Lead acid batteries were expen- sive to buy and maintain, and extremely damaging to the environment," Salahi says. As technology advanced, in- ventors created larger-capacity lithium batteries, such as Tesla's Powerwall. Unlike their solar tiles, Tesla's Powerwall batteries are al- ready on the market and work with any kind of solar panel. With the Powerwall, the sun fuels your house during the day, energy stored in the battery powers your home at night. Tesla released its original Powerwall in 2015. In January 2017, the Powerwall 2–which can power a two-bedroom house–became available. It's a brilliant eco solution, but still not quite as com- petitively priced as buying electricity from the grid. According to Rainier de Ocampo, director of marketing at Solar Optimum, their customers value the energy self-suffi - ciency these batteries make possible. "Every time there's a lit- tle shake up, an earthquake here in California, people panic," de Ocampo says. People with Powerwall batteries "feel a lot safer for their family and they feel a lot safer for their home." As the world's population grows and resources dwindle, we desperately need innovations of companies like Tesla. "The solar shingles are the future of the industry," says Salahi. "If you can make your roof generate electricity with- out anybody noticing that you have solar panels on your roof, why not?" Photos: Jane Evans Women's March L.A. January 21, 2017 february/march 2017 9