Tesla Powerwalls for Home Energy Storage Are Hitting US Market

A year ago, Elon Musk unveiled the Powerwall, the residential storage battery he predicted could someday shrink the world's carbon footprint. The first step, installing them in homes, is finally here.

Dana Hull

May 4, 2016

2 min read

Tesla39s 64kwhr Powerwall is now coming to a garage near you — Tesla's 6.4-kw-hr Powerwall is now coming to a garage near you.

To Steve Yates, the best thing about his new Tesla Powerwall is that he doesn’t have to worry anymore about the lights going out during a storm. Or maybe it’s how cool an addition it is to the entryway of his house in Monkton, Vermont.

“I’ve always wanted to have a backup power source,” said Yates, who was without electricity for 36 hours during Hurricane Irene in 2011. He also admires the Powerwall’s sleek white contours. “It’s kind of art-deco looking.”

A year after Elon Musk unveiled the Powerwall at Tesla Motors Inc.’s design studio near Los Angeles, the first wave of residential installations has started in the U.S. The 6.4-kilowatt-hour unit stores electricity from home solar systems and provides backup in the case of a conventional outage. Weighing 214 pounds and standing about 4-feet tall, it retails for around $3,000. But hookup by a trained electrician is required, as is something called a bi-directional inverter that converts direct-current electricity into the kind used by dishwashers and refrigerators. The costs add up quickly -- which has fueled skepticism about Musk’s dream of changing the way the world uses energy.

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