Just a week after the first Tesla Powerwall for residential use in Australia has reportedly been installed in a Sydney suburb, it’s now the UK’s turn to get its first Tesla home battery pack. Homeowner Mark Kerr has become the first British Tesla Powerwall owner after a SolarPlant engineer installed the system at his home in Wales.
Kerr and his family have a solar installation at their home and will use the excess energy produced during the day to charge the battery pack. Kerr talked to The Guardian about his new energy storage system:
“This is the future, definitely. For me this is the logical next step. We have the solar panels but we need a way to make best use of the power they produce. Me and my family are all out in the day, and we are not making use of the enormous amount of clean energy that our solar panels produce. The battery will allow us to store the energy we don’t use in the day to use when we need it in the evenings.”
Kerr, an electrician by trade, added about the design of the Powerwall:
“It’s a gorgeous-looking piece of technology, its design is very sleek and minimalistic and something you can hang on the wall like a piece of art, definitely nothing like some of the other clunky looking batteries.”
A SolarPlant engineer installs the UK’s first Powerwall home battery in Cardiff at Mark Keer and Lyndsey Bennett’s home. Photograph: Gareth Phillips/Gareth Phillips for the Guardian
South Wales solar installer Solar Plants installed Kerr’s new home battery pack. The company shared some marketing statistics about the Powerwall. Since it has been made available, the company emailed 3,000 solar customers about the battery. Out of the 1,500 who opened the email, 600 said they wanted one.
These potential buyers will have to wait a bit since Solar Plants says Kerr’s installation will work as a pilot project to get a better idea of how the system works.
Recent Powerwall coverage:
- How to install a Tesla Powerwall [step by step instructions]
- Tesla started shipping the Powerwall: custom crate spotted
- Tesla is planning to release a second generation Powerwall this summer
- Tesla accelerates hiring effort in Australia as Powerwall sales take off
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“A SolarPlant engineer installs the UK’s first Powerwall home battery”
Does “engineer” means also “technician” in English? Because an engineer sits at the office, doesn’t go around installing the products at the customers’ homes.
The term engineer can englobe a lot of roles, certainly not only desk jobs. In this particular case, it might also be worth considering that the Powerwall was for a pilot project…
Many engineers do infact get their hands dirty.
The Powerwall is designed by engineers. Basing on the product specifications, a solar installation specialist (or something like that) designs the system for the customer (e.g. there goes the Powerwall, there we put the inverter, the cables run here, and so on). Then, a technician/installer/laborer/workman installs everything. That’s how I see it.