Tesla has officially launched its much anticipated Powerwall backup energy product in South Africa and it’s a home battery that stores excess energy for use when you need it, provides backup power to your home during grid outages, and keeps your appliances running in your home at night or during grid outages.
The company sent a mail to potential customers in South Africa, informing them they are now able to reserve Powerwall units through the official website, after which a representative will contact them to provide more information regarding their installation.
“Customers for Tesla’s Energy products in South Africa can now find out more, reserve, or enquire through a new South African webpage at tesla.com/en_za/energy,” Tesla said in a statement.
“At tesla.com/en_za/Powerwall, customers can learn about Tesla’s rechargeable home battery and at tesla.com/en_za/Megapack, businesses and utilities can find out more about industrial and utility-scale battery storage in the form of Megapack.”
According to the website, the Tesla Powerwall is priced as follows:
- Powerwall – R143,300
- Supporting hardware – R23,500
- Total equipment cost – R166,800
When they visit the Tesla website, South African customers can select how many Powerwalls they would like to reserve, and they will need to complete a form detailing their type of residence and other pertinent information.
Benefits of Powerwall
Customers are now able to register for a Powerwall installation on the Tesla website, although this interface does not provide any information on how long it will be until they receive their order. “Once you place your reservation, a Tesla energy specialist will reach out to discuss your project,” the website states.
The availability of Powerwall in South Africa comes as the country continues to struggle with load-shedding, with experts stating that rolling blackouts could continue for the next three to five years. Many South Africans will be looking to purchase backup power systems as load-shedding continues, and the Powerwall may be an attractive option.
Tesla’s Powerwall provides 13.5kWh of usable energy and can be completely discharged without damage to the battery. It has a built-in AC inverter and can supply 5kW of continuous power to a home or office.
Since it has a built-in inverter, the Powerwall can be installed with new or existing solar panels, or without solar panels and used purely as a backup device in the event of a power outage. Tesla’s Megapack is an enterprise-scale backup power solution which can be installed quickly where needed.
Each Megapack comes from the factory fully-assembled with up to 3MWh of capacity and 1.5 MW of inverter capacity, with an AC interface and industry-leading energy density to achieve significant cost and time savings compared to other battery systems and traditional fossil fuel power plants. Using Megapack, Tesla can deploy an emissions-free 250MW, 1 GWh power plant in less than three months.
