For every household it is a big expense, the electricity bill. It doesn’t matter if you are a mother of three kids, a 70+ addicted to reality shows or a recently graduated IT student, paying the electricity bill is a pain in the ass. So the idea of going off-grid (generating all your energy yourself without help of the utility net) appeals to everyone. Unfortunately, the investment you’d have to make to get completely rid of your electricity bill is quite a considerable one.

Introducing Tesla’s Powerwall, the first attempt of a company to create a consumer-solution for the storage of green energy. We all know Tesla as car manufacturer from their famous Model S. But the idea behind the car can be easily applied to other contexts as well. By developing the Powerwall, Tesla aims to free consumers from their dependence on the utility net.

So what does the Powerwall do? The Powerwall stores electric energy generated by solar panels. Generally, most households are the most active during the morning and the evening. At the time the sun is out, most people are either at school/university or working, so the solar panel generated energy is lost. And when they come back and want to put their dishes in the dishwasher or wash their clothes, there is no green energy. With the Powerwall, this problem is solved, as it will store the energy during the day so you can enjoy it at night.

However, though Tesla is seriously attempting to lower it, the threshold for investing in your own green energy system is still a big one. With a price range of €5000-€40000, residential solar systems are definitely not accessible yet. And depending on the area you live in, having solar panels will not guarantee that you get to even half your electricity bill (e.g. the Netherlands only has an average of 4.5 sun-hours a day).

Taking all this in consideration, is going off-grid really in our future? Will solar panels become accessible for every household? Is Tesla’s effort worth it?

Sources:
https://www.tesla.com/powerwall
http://www.homepower.com/articles/solar-electricity/design-installation/so-you-want-go-grid
http://energyinformative.org/solar-panels-cost/
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Netherlands/sunshine-annual-average.php

We have all been obsessed by the development of VR (virtual-reality). Ever since the first launch of the Oculus Rift, people have been dreaming about walking on the moon, stealing a car in GTA or fighting side by side with Pikachu. Since then, Virtual Reality has been evolving and the competition is fierce. Oculus, HTC, Samsung, Microsoft etc. are all trying to bring the first fully functioning VR-device to market.

Although satisfying the hunger of the hyped up consumers seems the main goal of these companies, the real money is in creating business value with VR. With the most recent versions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive shipping for $599 and $799 respectively, the consumer market is not yet able to fully adopt VR. However, companies are and if used right, VR can drastically improve business processes. Some examples are provided below.

1. Shorter time to market
Designing products can be a complex and time-consuming process. Sketching by hand, modeled as CAD and then printed only to find out the measurements were off. By means of Virtual Reality the CAD can immediately brought to life, providing to opportunity to check, improve and restructure the design at the same time.

2. Increase business agility and flexibility
In line with the previous benefit, VR offers the opportunity to evaluate multiple scenarios in the production process, making the process more agile. By designing in a VR-environment, a company can wait until later in the process before committing to a final design, giving management more time to evaluate market opportunities and consumer behavior.

3. Training and Development
By simulating real-life environments, employees can be trained more efficiently and more important, risk free. This is extremely relevant for hazardous or risky occupations as pilots or surgeons. Flight simulators are already used in training for pilots, so why not build a virtual OR to simulate surgery?

4. Enhance sales processes and customer experiences
Using VR within the sales-environment to provide customers with a more in-depth insight into products they are buying. An example of this is the Kitchen Configurator of IKEA, which let you design your kitchen and immediately walk through it. First, this attracts more customers and second, the customers will leave more satisfied.

What do you think? Should the companies focus more on business or the final consumers? And what role will the software of these devices add to the discussion?

Sources:

Click to access pwc-virtual-reality-business-value.pdf

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/040516_Virtual-Reality
http://www.zdnet.com/article/five-ways-your-company-can-get-business-value-out-of-virtual-reality/