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Melbourne's "Tesla Town" Project Is a Glimpse into Our Residential Future

We keep talking about cars and vehicles and how they have changed over the past few years with more of the same scheduled for the upcoming period, but they're not the only ones who need to go through a dramatic rethinking if we're to be ready for the future.
YarraBend suburb 4 photos
Photo: Glenvill
YarraBendYarraBendTesla Powerwall
Our houses would have to adjust too. In fact, it could be argued that the wide use of electric cars would force a series of changes to our homes that, once employed, would make for a very different experience. It's not that electricity isn't an important part of our households already, but once our vehicles run on it too, producing and storing it ourselves would become vital.

A suburb being developed near the Australian city of Melbourne looks like it's ready to welcome the future owners of Teslas and other EV brands with its 2,500 dwellings. All buildings - ranging from free standing houses to townhouses and even apartments with three to five bedrooms - will come equipped with solar panels on the roof and Tesla Powerwalls installed for the optimum use of the energy available.

The project has been nicknamed "Tesla Town" by the "One Step off the Grid" website, but its real name is YarraBend, owed to the 300 meters of waterfront to the Yarra river. The entire area dedicated to the modern suburb is 16.46 hectare, but for now only 60 of the 2,500 planned houses have been built.

As you'd imagine, living in YarraBend won't be cheap. The price of the houses ranges from $1.48 to $2.1 million, which is another way of confirming that early adopters of modern technology have to pay the price. However, the importance of YarraBend can't be reduced to just a few solar panels on the roofs and the batteries to store it. The project is expected to achieve a 6-star ecologically sustainable development (ESD) rating, which would make it a first for an infill development site in Melbourne.

“The Powerwalls, combined with solar panels (also standard), will mean that future residents will be able to benefit in a variety of ways, including dramatically smaller power bills and knowing that the majority of their energy usage is coming from a clean and renewable source
,” Addison told the Heidelberg Leader.

It's easy to imagine that anyone living in a complex such as this would own at least one electric car, which is why the developers offer the option of having a charging point installed in front of the house. They hope that the solar panels and storage facilities will allow the owners to charge their cars for free in the future. Well, the good news is Australia sure doesn't lack in sunny days.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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