Elon Musk’s Tesla and the program against blackouts

Tesla, Elon Musk’s company, has partnered with California power company PG&E to launch a new program against blackouts using Powerwalls. 

There’s more in the Tesla household, as some employees who had to return to the office after the smart working issue couldn’t find their work desks. 

And finally, Musk’s latest Twitter statements hint at his political leanings toward the authoritarian right. 

Tesla and the project with PG&E against blackouts using Powerwalls

Elon Musk may have found a new solution to the frequent power outages in California.

His electric car company, as well as solar panels and energy storage systems company, Tesla, together with California-based power company PG&E, has launched a new program that pays those who supply Powerwalls to the grid. 

Basically, the new program signed by Tesla and PG&E will pay owners of Powerwalls, a proprietary home battery system that charges using electricity generated by solar panels, who can supply and send extra electricity to the grid in the event of a blackout or emergency. 

This is a virtual power plant (VPP) consisting of distributed energy storage systems, such as Tesla’s Powerwalls, used in concert to provide grid services and avoid the use of polluting and expensive peaking power plants.

Specifically, this means that when California’s grid operator (the CAISO or California Independent System Operator), issues an energy emergency notice, Powerwall owners will receive $2 for each additional Kwh they feed into the grid. Payments will be made “on an annual basis or more frequently as determined by Tesla”.

Elon Musk: “No to smart working,” but Tesla employees can’t find desk in office

A bizarre fact comes from the issue raised by Elon Musk about smart working. 

According to reports, Musk had sent an email to Tesla managers at the beginning of the month, in which he enjoined them to return to the office, otherwise they would assume that they had quit. 

Too bad that the same ones, arriving at the fateful office and discontinuing smart working, found themselves without desks. 

There have been many testimonies from Tesla employees, such as that of the Fremont worker who returned to the office to find that they had run out of spaces in the company parking lot and went up to the office to find that not a single desk was left available.

Because of this fact, some managers and office managers were forced to send at least some of the workers home. There was no room for them.

Elon Musk: his political leanings are moving to the right 

Another aspect that has now become public about Elon Musk is his political inclinations, which have changed over time, revealing themselves this past month toward the more hard-line authoritarian right. 

In fact, he suggests this himself with the revelation of his voting for a QAnon-affiliated Republican for a US House seat in Texas and leaning towards supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024.