Tesla Energy Launches PowerWall & PowerPack Batteries For Home & Business
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has just announced the launch of Tesla Energy, a new brand name, together with the Powerwall & Powerpack batteries for home, industrial & business use.
Tesla is not just a motor corporation producing green electric cars, but more of an “energy innovation company” whose mission is to “enable zero emission power generation” – in other words, clean energy.
According to Musk, the power requirements of the United States could be taken care with just 160 million Tesla Energy Powerpacks
The launch of Tesla Energy & its ambitious battery power system, which was totally powered by stored solar energy , revealed Musk’s ambitions in changing the way the world produces & uses power.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has reported that demand for the Powerwall has been so crazy that 38,000 orders have been received which will account for all unit production through to mid 2016
Endorsing this, he went on to say that the whole of the United States could be powered with just 160 million of the Tesla Energy Powerpacks and that 2 billion should be able to power the world.
The Powerwall Home Battery
Whilst the Powerwall battery system has only just been launched it has actually been developed & tested for a year already & sold to a few select customers.
The Powerwall home battery unit charges & accumulates power from the electricity that is generated from solar panels or when utility rates are low & powers your home (from the battery unit) in the evening.
More importantly, for many of us living off an unstable grid with unreliable power supply, it provides the ideal power backup electricity supply.
Furthermore, not only is it a compact unit that is very easy to install, but the Powerwall battery provides households & businesses independence from the national grid as well as peace of mind in having a reliable emergency power backup.
Cost of Tesla Powerwall
The Tesla Powerwall home battery unit, which consists of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery pack, is the power storage unit that is most suited for households & small business.
The Powerpack unit offers significantly more energy storage capacity than the Powerwall & is suited to big businesses that have a demand for more than 90 kWh of capacity for weekly cycles or 63 kWh of capacity for daily cycles.
The Powerwall unit comes in two versions which are going to be priced as follows;
- $3,000 for the 7 kWh version designed for daily cycles
- $3,500 for the 10kWh version designed for weekly cycles
For larger capacity requirements, up to 9 of either Powerwall battery versions can be installed together which will increase capacity as follows;
- up to 63 kWh capacity with 7 kWh batteries linked together
- up to 90 kWh capacity with 10 kWh batteries linked together
These batteries should be available mid 2015
Powerwall Benefits
This battery can provide the following benefits to the user.
- Cost savings – the battery can allow for load shifting* (load shedding in SA) which means that it will be charging up at times when the national power supplier’s charges are at a low as well as when the demand for electricity is lower and will use its stored electricity at those times when electricity rates are more costly & when demand is higher which means that your electricity costs will always be at the lowest rate.
- Consumption of stored solar power – stored surplus power in the form of solar energy that isn’t consumed at the time it is generated can be used at times when there is no sunshine or at night which means that you will be increasing your use of solar powere & not be using costly “grid electricity”
- Backup power capacity – the battery power storage systems ensures that your home (or business) will always have enough stored electricity to power you through times of power outages or load shedding.
* Load shifting occurs when the surplus power absorbed by batteries (such as the Powerwall battery) is passed back into the national grid when needed which creates the effect of evening out supply & demand and therefore avoiding placing the national grid under strain during peak periods of demand.
Powerwall Battery Capacity
The Powerwall battery unit offers 2 different options in terms of power charging capacity;
- 10 kWh version which is suitable for backup power needs (during power outages or load shedding in South Africa) & sells for $3,500
- 7 kWh model which is more suited for daily use, which contributes to the environmental & cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is unavailable, & sells for $3,000
The above selling prices are to the installer & exclude AC-DC inverter as well as installation costs.
Specifications & Other Details…
More on how this unit can be simply integrated into your home’s power supply.
- Technology of the Powerwall battery – rechargeable lithium ion battery with liquid thermal control
- 2kW of continuous power supply with peak power at 3kW
- A round trip efficiency of more than 92%
- Operating temperature range is from -20°C to 43°C
- Unit size – it is approximately 1.3m high; 0.9m wide; 0.2m thick
- Unit weight – 100kg
- The unit comes with a 10 year warranty
- For the battery units to be able to provide backup power, either unit can be connected to a solar power source or to the grid.
- Current – 5 amp nominal, 8.5 amp peak output
- It is compatible with single phase & three phase electricity supply
- Installation is not a DIY job but whilst it is simple, it needs to be done by a trained electrician
- As its name suggests, the unit is wall mounted & can be mounted on either the inside or outside of a suitably situated wall of your home & comes with integrated heat management
- The unit will be connected to the internet & according to Elon Musk it will be used to create “smart microgrids” which will enable it to be used as a redundancy system & potentially allow it to be totally independent of the national power grid.
The Powerpack
The Powerpack is what Musk calls the big brother to the Powerwall and it’s where things start to get really interesting in terms of clean power generation & Musk’s vision to “change the way the world uses energy on an extreme scale.”
Musk & his team describe this power generating unit as an “infinitely scalable system” that can work for businesses, in industrial applications and even public utility companies.
It comes in 100 kWh battery blocks that can scale from 500 kWH all the way up to 10 MWh and higher.
To give you an idea of the power generating capacity of the Tesla Powerpack, Musk says that the United States power requirements could be taken care with just 160 million Powerpacks.
If that’s not impressive enough, he went on to say that 2 billion of his Powerpack battery systems could power the entire world.
Musk’s contribution in the form of Tesla Energy’s Powerwall & Powerpack batteries is both feasible & practical and shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to providing a reliable & clean energy power source for the globe.