news Solar power company Natural Solar and power giant Origin are to be the first resellers of Tesla Energy’s Powerwall to the Australian market.
Natural Solar expects expected the first home installations of the state-of-the-art battery system to take place in January, while Origin has said it expects to begin fulfilling orders in February.
The Tesla Powerwall is a stylish, wall-mounted rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which is suitable for indoor and outdoor installation, and comes with a 10-year warranty.
Tesla describes it as: “[A] home battery that charges using electricity generated from solar panels, or when utility rates are low, and powers your home in the evening. It also fortifies your home against power outages by providing a backup electricity supply.”
Powerwall’s come with a 7 kWh energy storage capacity – sufficient to power most homes during the evening using power generated by solar panels during the day, according to Tesla. Multiple batteries can be installed together for homes that have greater energy demands. A 10 kWh weekly cycle version is available for backup applications.
Frank Calabria, Origin’s CEO Energy Markets, said, “By offering rooftop solar with home batteries, Origin is able to provide households with greater control over their energy use than ever before. Customers can now also make their investment in solar work harder, as excess electricity produced during the day can be stored for use at a later time when the solar panels do not produce electricity.”
According to a statement from Natural Solar, there has been an influx of enquiries from Australian consumers since Tesla first announced the Powerwall earlier this year, and that demand for the new product is already high.
Chris Williams, Managing Director at Natural Solar said being a Tesla Energy authorised reseller is a milestone for the Sydney-based firm, which is a provider of renewable energy products and expertise.
Australia is one of the first regions globally to receive Tesla’s new unit. Natural Solar said this is due largely to high electricity prices, abundant sunlight and fast uptake of renewable energy – with more than 1.5 million households already using solar.
“The Powerwall Home Battery is unique because it can be installed inside or outside, is extremely efficient and is functional for both single- and three-phase households. It can also be islanded from the grid in the event of a blackout,” Williams said.
Origin’s Calabria said that home batteries are not necessarily for everyone at this early stage, but that, in a recent survey, more than 80% of owners of solar photo-voltaic panels indicated they would consider buying one.
Image credit: Tesla
It’s unique because it uses Li-Ion. That makes it smaller due to higher energy density. I’m not sure it’s necessarily unique from a functional perspective, though. You can get the same benefits for less money using existing batteries, they’ll just be larger. It just won’t be as pretty and it won’t say ‘Tesla’.
As a society, we should be looking at molten salt storage solar towers – they provide baseload by super heating salt during the day, which provides six to eight hours of ongoing power as it cools. It is far more efficient from both energy storage and cost perspectives than individual homes having batteries.
“You can get the same benefits for less money using existing batteries”
Yes… its interesting to see the value of brand identity and marketing. Its no accident that the packaging looks so good.
There’s also quite a bit of maintenance for the ole lead acid cell batteries (car batt on steriods). I’ve only known one person (virtually off grid on remotish property) that had them and he was always checking the levels etc. That was before solar was popular though so I’d hope things have improved somewhat (also his storage took up a dedicated small shed so size reduction for Li-Ion probably a big deal).
There is something to be said for making things look pretty, be fairly risk free and easy as well.
Simon,
FWIW, I’ve lived with off-grid solar for over twenty years and have a large bank of Lead Acid batteries. You do have to check electrolyte level every few months, but certainly not more frequently. Unless you are grossly overcharging, they don’t use that much water.
Likewise I am puzzled by the Tesla hype. Australians have been using lead acid (and other types of cell) for a long, long time. I remember when I was young how most of the country properties had Southern Cross wind generators and diesels to change a bank of lead acid batteries.
The great thing about those old batteries was that they were “demountable”. Each cell was assembled in a square glass container, and you could lift out the plates, clean out the junk and reassemble (with new plates if necessary). The plates were very low-tech and were often fabricated (and recycled) at the local battery shop. Consequently the batteries were very cheap, and could last a long time.
One other thing: Apparently the Tesla batteries use a large number of Panasonic NCR18650 cells. As these are readily available (and cheap in bulk) I’m surprised that enthusiastic hobbyist are not assembling their own clone Tesla packs. Of course it would need the appropriate electronics, but that is relatively easy these days..
I spoke to soon. Seems there are quite a few…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQa5gn-7D74
Why molten salt? Why not Flow batteries, like those by EOS, or PrimusPower, or Redflow?
“Why molten salt?”
$$$ for large scale utility storage.
Storing the suns heat also increases the load factor (extends operating hours) on the turbine generator sets do reducing capital expenditure there.
Yeah, I’m keeping an eye on what Simon Hackett is going to do with Redflow, I like the concept/idea of the zinc-bromide setup, just waiting to see what the cost of a residential system will be.
Tony Abbott thinks that the Tesla Powerwall is bad for humanity.
Exciting stuff, and I can see myself getting something like this within the next decade. Of course, I am expecting that there will be significant advances, reduction in costs, improvements in capacity/reliability or whatever metrics are used to prove their awesomeness.
Being totally self-sufficient for electricity is an idea that I find extremely attractive, and I suspect that this is a very widely spread sentiment. Bring it on!
SA Power Networks are already in court trying to charge Solar Owners a ‘extraordinary maintenance fee’ because of the strain solar puts on the grid and confuses the peak output times.
Imagine their approach to the widespread deployment of this lot!
All the more reason to go off-grid entirely. Fecken rent seekers will find new ways to rent seek no matter what…
Great customer relations exercise that. Hmmm, next up in court SA electricity customers demanding punitive non-supply penalties from SA Power. Goose meet gander.
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