Tesla launches battery system to power homes, businesses and the world

folarin okunola

May 4, 2015 8:28 AM

The unit is about three feet by four feet in size and six inches thick, comes with integrated heat management and can sit either outside or inside of the wall of the home.

The Powerwall at the demonstration.

Tesla has finally launched Tesla Energy, its battery system that a work for homes, businesses and utilities. The system is divided into two products: the Powerwall is a home battery system that comes in a 10kWh version and costs $3,500, or a 7kWh model for $3000, not inclusive of installation and the inverter.

The unit is about three feet by four feet in size and six inches thick, comes with integrated heat management and can sit either outside or inside of the wall of the home. The system is connected to the Internet and can be used as a redundancy system, or potentially allow a home to go off the power grid completely. “’The whole thing is a system that just works,” said Elon Musk on Friday at a briefing with reporters.

The other component is what Musk and his team are calling Powerpack- and things really begin to get interesting here. They say it is an “infinite scalable system” that can work for businesses, industrial applications and even public utility companies. It comes in 100kWh battery blocks that can scale 500 kWh all the way to 10MWh and higher.

While the system was only just announced last Friday, Powerwall has been in testing for a year and has already been sold to select customers. Tesla will start taking orders for the Powerpack system later this year.

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