After months of teasing an upgrade for its flagship home battery system, Tesla has quietly started installing the Powerwall 3 in customers' homes.
Photos shared by Electrek show Powerwall 3 systems appended to one customer's exterior wall, even before Tesla officially launched the product.
The Powerwall helps reduce homeowners' reliance on the grid by storing solar power, and it automatically becomes the primary power source in an outage. It can help users save money on bills, too, by monitoring real-time energy prices using the Tesla app.
Customers can choose to charge the battery using the grid or solar power during off-peak hours when electricity is often the cheapest. That stored energy then powers the home during busier hours, when prices tend to go up.
Details of the battery system's third generation first emerged in April this year when Electrek reported that it would include a more efficient installation, greater power capacity, and a refined aesthetic.
The Powerwall 3 now boasts an energy capacity of 13.5 kilowatt-hours, CNET reported. Each system can be scaled up to 40.5 kilowatt-hours per unit. A Powerwall 3 also has a higher power-output rating than its predecessors, at 11.5 kilowatts.
It's also designed to be fully integrated with solar power. The new battery system comes with a built-in solar inverter — a device that converts the energy generated by solar power into electricity that the grid uses. That increases the Powerwall's efficiency.
Since its surprise appearance in the wild, the new model has now seen a soft launch at the RE+ annual trade show for the renewable energy industry. For most customers, however, the Powerwall 3 won't be officially available to order until 2024.
"PW3 is optimized for ease of installation & high power, which means that a single Powerwall can serve as an uninterruptible power supply for most homes," Elon Musk said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"This is a big deal for ensuring that the lights stay on and you can power all your devices in the event of a power outage," Musk added.
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