Australia will be the first to receive Tesla’s new house-powering battery

Australia has been tee’d up as the first country to receive Tesla’s new Powerwall storage battery system, a 7kWH home energy storage unit that will power the entire home. It will become available to consumers by the end of 2015. This is way ahead of its previous prediction of a 2016 release date.

The unit contains lithion-ion batteries that will sit on the interior wall of the household, with solar panels being fixed to the exterior roof. Resposit Power, a Canberra based firm that facilitates the buying and selling of stored electricity has partnered with Tesla for the launch. Despite the obvious sex appeal of an interior battery designed and installed by the leading company in energy, the technology has a long way to go before users can completely disconnect from the grid.

Tesla noted that Australia is an ideal candidate for the launch of the Powerwall, due to its solar resources and high power costs.

The system is currently priced at US $3,000 (AUD $4,173) which places Tesla in a competitive position in the domestic renewable energy market, particularly within Australia.

A 7kWH battery will only be capable of storing little more than an hours worth of power that is typically generated by a 5kWH solar power system. Meaning that users will most likely have to have multiple systems installed on their walls.

Additional products being launched by Tesla include the 10kWH Powerwall which will allow residential back-up power and the Powerpack, a commercial utility solution.