Last month, Tesla Motors — an American car and technology company — announced its “Powerwall” to much acclaim. Headlines like “The Tesla battery heralds the beginning of the end for fossil fuels,” and “How Tesla’s Powerwall Will Shift Control to the Consumer,” are everywhere.

Tesla promises the “game changing” home battery will liberate millions of consumers from the tyranny of the electricity grid by bringing power generation to the home itself. The battery-wall can be a mechanism to store solar energy — households would have to install solar panels on their homes that charge the battery (alternatively, one could simply charge the battery through the standard grid).

In theory, this will free individuals from not only fossil fuels, but also from the geography of centralized power plant generators (nuclear or, coal-fired power plants), and dispersed networks of transmission lines. No more fossil fuels, no more electric utility bills. Maximum freedom.