Yesterday I wrote about homes having their own wind power. Today, I came across an article where Toyota is planning to develop batteries for homes to run off of.  Now if, the wind power could charge the batteries, we might really be on to something.

Toyota Motor Corp. is working with Toyota Home to devise a power storage system to be used by as early as 2011. A home power system will be more practical for plug-in hybrid cars due out by 2010.

Their goal is to

  1. design a device that costs hundreds of thousands of yen
  2. is small enough to fit in the home or be placed outside
  3. can store electricity during off-peak night hours
  4. can store power generated by solar cells
  5. can make power available for lighting and other uses in the home during the day
  6. be a high-speed charging device that can power up plug-in cars.

Toyota’s prototype uses lithium ion batteries and can store some 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is enough to meet the daytime energy needs of the average household.

But, can you drive the house?

Only then would Toyota REALLY have something.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)