Australia has been named as one of the first markets, alongside North America and parts of Europe, to receive deliveries of the Tesla Powerwall home battery backup system.
Tesla has announced that the 7kWh residential battery storage system will reach Australia in 2015, ahead of the predicted 2017 schedule.
The Powerwall has the ability to power an entire house using its lithium-ion battery module that stores electricity from solar panels for backup power and self-consumption.
Australia is a viable option for Tesla due to high electricity costs, an extensive solar panel network and the structure of its tariffs.
Tesla’s statement outlines the benefit for Australians currently using solar panels to provide energy to their home.
“Powerwall will enable solar customers to store solar energy they produce during peak sunlight hours with a newly announced power of 3.3kW, continuous and peak.
“They can then use this energy in the night time hours, rather than purchasing electricity at the retail price and selling their solar back to the grid for the feed-in-tariff rate,” Tesla said in their statement.
The Powerwall uses Tesla’s liquid thermal control system and software that translates information from a solar inverter, alongside its lithium-ion batteries. This allows the Powerwall to let consumers use stored energy when they please.
The system is expected to a mass market product by 2020.
