Tesla today began a wider rollout of its 7kWh Powerwall product for customers who are also Tesla vehicle owners across the US. Tesla Energy quietly cancelled the 10kWh Powerwall option with limited cycles we found out today because the “economics didn’t work” just months after it was announced. The 7kWh battery is obviously a lower capacity but it optimized for daily usage cycles which may not be optimal for those looking for a backup solution rather than an off grid application…
After much delay, this week Powerwall representatives from Tesla began contacting owners who met certain criteria including early Powerwall reservations, solar already installed and already being current Tesla vehicle customers. The $3000 Powerwalls will come standard with SolarEdge USS-SE7600A(PDF) Single Phase Inverters which retail for $1500 and up. Solar customers who have SolarEdge 7600 series inverters will be eligible for a firmware update from SolarEdge, though it isn’t clear when those will be made available.
SolarEdge Inverters are preferred by outfits such as Solar City, which of course Tesla CEO Elon Musk co-founded and is the Chairman of the Board.
Reasons for the delay in implementation have been cited as difficulty getting SolarEdge’s products working with Tesla’s rigid specs and tuning to get the technology to where its capabilities matched Tesla’s promises.
Powerwalls will begin shipping in late May in the US for installations beginning in June. Many customers are opting for 2 or 3 Powerwalls which can be installed in series up to 9 at a time – at which point it might start making sense to look into a 100kWh PowerPack.
The moves comes at an interesting time as the company is expected to have a V2 of the Powerwall ready for late summer.
SolarEdge diagram for its Inverters and Tesla’s Powerwall
We reported on several new Tesla Energy projects worldwide in the past few months. The first Tesla Powerwall for residential use in Australia has reportedly been installed in a Sydney suburb last month, and Sprig Electric recently released the details of its energy storage project with 5 Tesla Powerpacks. More 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
- Tesla is sending out Powerwall installation surveys to Model S owners
- Tesla Powerwall arrives in Germany – Memodo receives large shipment and cites high demand
- SolarCity is launching a new Solar+Tesla Powerwall+Nest Smart Thermostat package
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
I doubt that Tesla will provide those Power Inverters, Tesla website states following:
Installation
Requires installation by a trained electrician. DC-AC inverter not included.
Also if you have Solar Panels, then you already have a DC-AC inverter, I have 2 in my house.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear. Tesla won’t be providing the Inverters. But since only 1 currently works with the Powerwall, you know which one you will be getting.
So this is a 3kw inverter? Do you need anything else but the battery, solar and inverter? Anyone know of a lower priced good 2kw gridtie inverter.
Why are all the inverters so low-power? I immediately thought of an application for the battery: residential peak-shaving. But the inverter can’t handle it.
My house has extremely peaky loads, pulling 9.6 – 21.6 kilowatts for short periods (seconds or minutes, not hours). With some of my planned upgrades, I am going to have to upgrade from 200 amp to 400 amp service to handle peak load. But it’s only for peak — my average is way under 200 amps.
I could buy some batteries, but the batteries and the inverters would need to have a higher peak power capacity than this.
@Nathanael
what is the cause of this peak load?
I really wanted to install a Tesla Powerwall however my PV system like 1000 s of others, doesn’t have Solar Edge power optimisers fitted behind every panel, this is all good and well if you are installing a whole system from new but for existing PV there should really have been a more straight forward option.
I can just here the reaction from my customers when I say yes you can have a Tesla Battery but I need to change your inverter to a Solar Edge and take all your panels off to fit optimisers.
If an improved PowerWall is only months away, why would anyone bother with this one?
Good question and something I’ll be asking Tesla
I asked a German Tesla representative about that:
” … there are no immediate functional or design changes to the Powerwall”.
But: “For example, we are moving a power supply component for the Powerwall from the inverter into the Powerwall itself. This change will make installation easier and improve the product overall”
This step is required, to have the Powerwall supporting SMA and Fronius inverters as well (compatible SMA inverter will be available by Q3, which makes sense looking at the “V2 Powerwall” timeline)
I’m going to take a running leap and opine that the multiple-PowerWall installations will be wired in parallel. At the end of the day, they’re just batteries. More duration, same voltage is done in parallel. More voltage, same duration would be wired in series.
What if we want same voltage, same duration, more amperage? Parallel? Serial?
parallel
The Solaredge inverter for the Powerwall is the SE7600A-USS, and not the linked SE7600A-US.
The USS version is specific to the StorEdge system developed for the Powerwall, and lists around $3,500.
The battery requires an aditional ‘StorEdge Interface’ to power the battery’s cooling. Backup requires the autotransformer,
and a separate circuit for the ‘backed-up’ loads of the diagram.
The DC (Battery) input of the SE7600A-USS is limited to 3.3kW, so only one battery may be connected to the inverter at any one time.
The Powerwall must be used with the SE7600A-USS, even if there are existing panels and inverter, though bundles that include solar are
the most frequently marketed option in Australia.