Energy
Tesla PowerWall Debuts: $3,000 Home Battery
Tesla Energy has announced its new PowerWall residential storage battery. Price for a 7 kWh system is just $3,000. Several batteries can be interconnected.
The world got its first look at the Tesla PowerWall yesterday during a splashy debut presentation – an event powered solely by energy collected from solar panels earlier in the day and stored in an array of PowerWall batteries. In essence, the PowerWall is a large uninterruptible power supply for homes. Elon Musk was in particularly high spirits as he modestly proclaimed this new technology could eliminate the world’s need for fossil fueled electricity forever.
As technology journalist and Tesla owner Daniel Sparks correctly predicted on Tuesday, Tesla’s battery storage business will be conducted under the name Tesla Energy — a name the company reserved more than a decade ago. Tesla Energy will provide battery storage systems for three potential markets; residential, commercial and utilities.
Tesla PowerWall Residential System
The biggest news about the Tesla PowerWall battery storage system for residential customers is the price. A 7 kWh PowerWall is just $3,000. That’s far less than most observers expected. A 10 kWh system lists for $3,500. Do you need more than 10 kWh of storage? No problem. The units are designed so that as many as 9 of them can be plugged together for a total of 90 kWh of storage.
Here are the specs as provided by the Tesla Energy website:
- Technology Wall mounted, rechargeable lithium ion battery with liquid thermal control.
- Models 10 kWh $3,500 — for backup applications. 7 kWh $3,000 — for daily cycle applications
- Warranty Ten year warranty with an optional ten year extension.
- Efficiency 92% round-trip DC efficiency
- Power 2.0 kW continuous, 3.3 kW peak
- Voltage 350 – 450 volts
- Current 5 amp nominal, 8.5 amp peak output
- Compatibility Single phase and three phase utility grid compatible.
- Operating Temperature -4°F to 110°F / -20°C to 43°C
- Enclosure Rated for indoor and outdoor installation.
- Installation Requires installation by a trained electrician. AC-DC inverter not included.
- Weight 220 lbs / 100 kg
- Dimensions 52.1″ x 33.9″ x 7.1″ (130 cm x 86 cm x 18 cm)
- Certifications UL listed
Customers can sign up on the company website now to reserve a battery. Deliveries are expected to begin in late summer, with more capacity coming online as production at the Tesla GigaFactory begins in late 2016.
The PowerWall will be marketed to all homeowners, not just those with solar panels or other renewable energy systems. The concept is simple. The battery gets charged overnight when electricity rates are lowest. Then it is used to power the home during the morning and evening peak usage times, saving the customer enough money to more than pay for the system and installation.
If the customer has a home solar system, it will charge the PowerWall during the day, reducing the need to buy any electricity from the grid even further. Depending on local conditions, customers can even sell any excess power back to the local utility company, reducing their electric bills that much more.
Tesla PowerPack For Commercial Customers
Tesla Energy has its sights on more than just residential customers. We know larger battery storage systems have been installed in 11 Walmart stores already. Now Amazon has committed to an enormous 4.8 mWh system for its western US data center, according to Gizmodo. Selected Target stores will also get Tesla Energy PowerPack systems.
The benefits of on-site battery storage are magnified for large scale commercial operations. In the traditional business model used by utility companies. they have no choice but to buy power from the grid during peak demand times. Having on-site energy storage capability will allow then to charge their batteries when electricity costs the least and use that stored energy when it benefits them the most. Here’s more from the Tesla Energy website:
Based on the powertrain architecture and components of Tesla electric vehicles, Tesla energy storage systems deliver broad application compatibility and streamlined installation by integrating batteries, power electronics, thermal management and controls into a turn key system.
Tesla’s energy storage allows businesses to capture the full potential of their facility’s solar arrays by storing excess generation for later use and delivering solar power at all times. Business Storage anticipates and discharges stored power during a facility’s times of highest usage, reducing the demand charge component of the energy energy bills. Energy storage for business is designed to:
- Maximize consumption of on-site clean power
- Avoid peak demand charges
- Buy electricity when it’s cheapest
- Get paid by utility or intermediate service providers for participating in grid services
- Back up critical business operations in the event of a power outage
It’s a simple business case to make — our energy storage system will save your business tons of money. What business owner wouldn’t be happy with that?
Tesla Energy Grid Scale Storage
The most important part of Thursday’s announcement may turn out to be Tesla Energy’s entry into the grid scale energy storage market. Southern California Edison and OnCor have indicated interest in partnering with Tesla Energy on large scale energy storage installations. Elon Musk said Thursday night that phase of the business will be based on multiples of 100 kWh basic units that can interconnect to provide up to 10 megawatt-hours of electrical storage. Why is that important?
Since utility grids were first invented, the model has been for large generating plants located in or near major cities supplying electricity to the surrounding area. Eventually, long distance power transmission lines were constructed to connect those city scale power systems into regional power grids supplying millions of customers.
But renewable energy sources like wind or solar farms tend to focus on relatively small installations located far from urban centers. They feed their power into the grid from the edges, not from the middle. Roof top solar sytems for individual homes and small businesses feed small amounts of power into the grid from hundreds or even thousands of locations in the middle of the grid.
Utility grids are simply not constructed to behave efficiently with all that electricity being supplied from multiple sources. Home solar in particular has led to a dramatic increase in voltage fluctuations across entire grids. If those fluctuations are large enough, they can damage computers and other digital devices. Grid scale storage batteries can absorb all those spikes and fluctuations coming in and feed clean, well regulated electricity back out.
Generating plants and utility grids are expensive to build and maintain. Industry observers estimate utility companies in North America will need to spend as much as $ 1.5 trillion dollars by 2030 to build new electric generating facilities and maintain the utility grid. Some industry executives suggest that the best way to move forward is to dismantle the grid and transition to a microgrid model.
According to Green Tech Media, David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, told an industry conference in February, 2014, “There will come a day, in a generation or so, when the grid is at best an antiquated system to a completely different way of buying electricity. Everyone just stop a moment and think how shockingly stupid it is to build a 21st-century electric system based on a system of 130 million wooden poles. Stop trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, and start talking about, ‘How do we get rid of the grid?’”
Elon Musk will be more than happy to help Crane and his peers get rid of their grid. In his remarks, he told the audience that with 2 billion batteries and a lot of solar panels, the world could finally stop using fossil fuels to generate electricity altogether. He added that microgrids and renewable energy could empower large segments of the world’s population who presently have no access to electric power. Musk has always been a champion of ” disruptive technology.” It doesn’t get much more disruptive than dismantling the electrical grid and making electric utilities obsolete.
Demand curve chart via CaliSO
Energy
Taiwan power firm bets big on Tesla Megapacks as AI data center thirst grows
Taiwan’s Apollo Power orders 260 Tesla Megapacks, betting AI data centers will need more electricity.
A Taiwanese power company has ordered 260 Tesla Megapack 2XL units, roughly 1GWh of storage, betting that electricity rather than chips will decide how fast AI data centers come online. Apollo Power signed the contract with Tesla’s Taiwan energy arm on October 8, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan stock exchange.
The filing says the units are meant for behind the meter storage and resilient grid projects, with delivery in batches from the end of 2027 and sites operating in 2028. Apollo and Tesla did not disclose a price, citing a confidentiality agreement. Apollo plans to pay for the equipment through a cash capital increase and bank financing, and it noted the purchase is not revenue and does not mean it holds firm orders from its partners.
Biggo reported that only about 33 units are under signed customer contracts, with roughly 150 more in negotiation. The same report put total project investment near NT$130 billion, but that figure includes installation work, with the equipment itself making up about 40 to 50 percent. In other words, a large share of this order is Apollo reserving supply ahead of demand. Apollo’s chairman told local media global large storage supply is tight, which is why the company locked in the units early, according to Yahoo Taiwan Finance.
Apollo also launched an AI data center and grid resilience alliance with Phison, Gigabyte and Shihlin Electric. The pitch rests on a pilot at Phison’s Zhunan plant, where Apollo and Tesla Energy Taiwan installed grid forming Megapack 2XLs in June. Tesla Energy Taiwan general manager Sun Hsiao-Han said the project went from demo to 1GWh in four months, and that Tesla Energy has deployed more than 50GWh worldwide.
Taiwan’s cabinet has approved amendments that would require large energy users to install their own generation and storage, which gives enterprise storage a regulatory tailwind.
The deal fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked. Tesla’s Megablock targets 1GWh commissioned in 20 business days, a pitch aimed squarely at fast moving data center builds. Megapacks already back xAI’s Colossus in Memphis and a 400MW AI campus in Brazil. Sun Media adds that Megapack 2XL was named among the first products in Nvidia’s DSX Ready qualification for battery storage in AI factories.
Deliveries are more than a year away, so the real test is how much of that 260 unit order turns into signed customer contracts.
Energy
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can power your home with Powerwall 3 during outages.
Tesla has turned its two top sellers into backup batteries for the house.
Tesla Energy announced on Tuesday that Powershare Home Backup is now available for new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles paired with a Powerwall 3, saying the car can “extend your home backup by over 2 days.” Minutes later, Tesla’s main account quoted the post with a broader pitch: “With Powerwall 3, every Tesla can now serve as your home’s backup battery.”
Until this week, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could send power back into a home, and that capability only began working alongside Powerwall 3 last month, after years of ambitious targets.
Tesla’s updated Powershare page says every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the U.S. or Puerto Rico on or after October 1, 2026 can use the feature. Some, but not all, earlier cars also qualify. Owners can check on the touchscreen under Software, then Additional Vehicle Information, where a capable car shows “Powershare Support: Enabled.” As Electrek reported, bidirectional power on the two cars runs through an inverter Tesla calls PCS2 Lite, and the company has not said when that part entered production on each trim.
The home side is simpler. A house that already has a Powerwall 3 and either a Wall Connector 3 or Universal Wall Connector needs no additional equipment, and Tesla says compatibility is enabled through a software update. When the grid drops, the Powerwall and the car work together, with up to 11.52 kW of continuous power available. Tesla’s “over two days” estimate assumes a home using 30 kWh per day and a car starting at a 90 percent charge. Standard trims are rated for up to two days, while the Cybertruck adds more than three.
There are limits. Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ support is listed as “coming soon.” Model S and Model X are not included, and Grid Support, the program that lets Cybertruck owners in Texas send power back to the grid during demand spikes for bill credits, is not available for Model 3 or Model Y.
The rollout also lines up with something Elon Musk said more than three years ago. At Tesla’s March 2023 Investor Day, Musk said, “I don’t think very many people are going to want to use bidirectional charging, unless you have a Powerwall.” Tesla has now shipped the feature for its volume cars with exactly that requirement attached.
The Powerwall pairing was the hard part on Cybertruck. Tesla told owners in December 2025 that Powershare with Powerwall had been pushed to mid 2026, and lead engineer Wes Morrill explained that two devices capable of forming a home’s grid have to negotiate which one leads during an outage, across multiple generations of hardware. With that work done for the truck, Tesla was able to extend it to the Model 3 and Model Y within a month.
Ford and GM have offered home backup from their EVs for several years, but both require a separate inverter and backup hardware. Tesla’s version leans on equipment many Powerwall 3 owners already have on the wall. Powershare for the two cars also ships as part of software update 2026.38.3, the same release that began delivering Halloween Mode on Tuesday.
Elon Musk
Google just picked SpaceX for its first step into orbital AI
Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher AI satellite on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare next week.
Google is about to put its own AI chips into orbit for the first time, and it is paying SpaceX to get them there.
The company said Thursday that the first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher, its research effort to find out whether space can host large-scale AI computing, will fly next week on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
The satellite, called MVP, is about the size of a refrigerator and carries four of Google’s Tensor Processing Units, the same chips Google runs in its ground data centers. Google originally planned to launch two custom satellites in 2027, but chose to move faster by integrating its chips into a satellite.
MVP’s solar panels supply about one kilowatt of power, and Google will run Gemini models on the TPUs only in bursts of roughly 15 minutes before the chips shut down so the radiators can shed heat. In a blog post, Google said its Trillium TPUs survived vibration testing that mimicked sustained launch loads of up to 10g, with individual components seeing 50 to 100g, and handled a radiation dose greater than a five year mission would deliver.
SpaceX and Google mull massive partnership on Musk’s orbital data dream: report
Next week’s flight, slated for October 1, follows a relationship that became public in May, when Teslarati reported that Google was in talks with SpaceX for a launch deal tied to orbital data centers. Google also holds a stake of roughly 6% in SpaceX.
The two companies are chasing the same idea from very different starting points. SpaceX’s own orbital compute program is built around the AI1 satellite, a roughly 70 meter structure derived from Starlink V3 hardware that is designed for 150 kW of peak compute, about 150 times the power MVP will draw. Elon Musk has brushed off concerns about crowding orbit with those satellites, and SpaceX is building its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, to produce them, targeting an annualized rate of about 1 GW of space compute by the end of 2027.
Musk also posted on X on Thursday that “the amount of compute in space will obviously round up to 100% of all compute.”
Google has been more cautious in public. Its research estimates that launch prices need to fall below about $200 per kilogram before an orbital data center can compete with a ground facility on energy cost, a threshold the company believes could be reached around the mid 2030s. The Suncatcher team has said it expects the effort to remain a project rather than a product for years, which leaves the first real test of its hardware riding on a rocket from the company with the most aggressive timeline in the field.
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