Tesla Motors unveils batteries for homes

Tesla Motors yesterday unveiled Tesla Energy, power storage systems for homes, companies and utilities that would help power its growth beyond electric vehicles into a fast-growth track of the energy industry.

According to chief executive Elon Musk, Tesla aimed to "fundamentally change the way the world uses energy on an extreme scale." The products were introduced to a crowd of business partners and journalists at a Tesla facility near Los Angeles.

Tesla envisions storage systems of the type to form integral part of a fossil-fuel-free lifestyle in which people could have solar panels on their roof generating electricity to power their home and recharge their electric car batteries.

The smallest battery Tesla unveiled on Thursday, Powerwall, is housed in a six-inch-wide container that could be hung outside a garage or on the outside wall of a house.

At $3,500 for a 10kWh model, excluding inverter and installation prices, the Powerwall could be used to back up power or to store solar energy.

Musk said the lead installation partner for the home battery would be SolarCity Corp, but the company would also partner with others.

SolarCity had already installed several hundred batteries for Tesla in California. The growth of those projects had been helped by a subsidy from the state's public utility regulator.

The system would be priced $3,000 to $3,500 (about €2,700 to €3,200), depending on capacity.

''I don't believe this product in its first incarnation will be interesting to the average person,'' said Peter Rive, SolarCity's chief technology officer.

However, Rive still expects there would be enough demand to substantially increase the number of batteries in homes.

According to Musk, Tesla as also other future entrants into the market would be able to sell 2 billion battery packs around the world - roughly the same as the number of vehicles already on roads.

According to commentators, the batteries would prove to be more useful if utilities and regulators allowed power prices to change throughout the day, according to market conditions.

That way, the software that controlled the solar and battery system would let customers use their home-generated power - and not expensive grid power - when grid prices spiked.

Several businesses, including Amazon and Target, planned to use Tesla's battery storage system on a limited basis. Edison in Southern California has already been using Tesla batteries for energy storage.