The first question is “How much does a Tesla Powerwall cost?”
In 2017 the Tesla Powerwall 2 launched with the cheapest price point at $9,000 for 13.5 kWh making it one of the most cost effective options in the residential battery market. Since then, initially high demand and higher production costs led to the wholesale cost of the battery reaching $16,500 in 2022 before reducing in price in early 2023 to $12,900 including GST.
In Australia, the current market installation cost for a Tesla Powerwall 2 is between $15,000 and $17,000, excluding solar panels and any discounts your state may offer.
The Chemistry of a Tesla Powerwall 2
Batteries have a positive cathode, a negative anode and are separated by an electrolyte in a simple view of a battery. The Tesla Powerwall 2 uses Lithium-ion technology where the cathodes are made from a compound of Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel and Manganese (LiNiMnCoO2). Other lithium battery chemistries in the on-grid home battery storage market include lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) and lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2).
Tesla Powerwall 2 Warranty for Australian Customers
The battery comes with a 10 year warranty and offers 5kW of output power catering to most large residential homes and multiple batteries can be chained together for commercial usage. The battery is 1150x760mm and can be wall-mounted indoors or outdoors. The Tesla Powerwall 2 can be designed to provide power during a blackout.
Solar batteries often come with a time and throughput warranty. The time warranty covers a period of years that eligible faults can be claimed, while the throughput warranty gives a certain number of kWhs discharged or number of cycles completed before the warranty expires.
The Tesla Powerwall 2 comes with a 10 year warranty for defects, with the normal set of exclusions including improper use or installation. The warranty also covers a maximum degradation to 70% of its nameplate capacity of 13.2kWh at the end of the 10 year period. That means if your battery can only discharge 9.2 kWh or less after 10 years then you might be able to make a warranty claim.
The through-put warranty that you get with your Tesla Powerwall 2 depends on how you use it. For typical residential applications where the battery is used to store solar power during the day and discharge in the evenings or during blackouts, Tesla offers ‘unlimited cycles’. In this scenario the battery is cycling once a day, so this equates to around 3,600 cycles over 10 years.
For any other usage the battery has a maximum through-put of 37,000 kWh as measured at the batteries AC output. Although it is not specifically mentioned battery uses like participating in Virtual Power Plants or charging your battery off the grid would likely put your battery into this category. The through-put of 37,000 works out to be roughly 10kWhs a day, so after factoring in the degradation of the battery this will be fairly similar to 1 battery cycle per day for 10 years.
Tesla Mobile App Functionality
- Back Up Only – switches the battery to store all possible energy and keep the battery full. This means in the event of a black out power will continue for the system and can potentially last for weeks if coupled with a sufficiently sized Solar PV system.
- Self Powered – This mode maxmised the financial utility of the battery enabling a household to capatilise on as much free energy from their rooftop prior to drawing any energy from the grid and incurring a cost from their local electricity retailer. This is the common purpose for residential batteries as homeowners seek to tackle evening and early morning power usage.
- Time-based Control – If the owner has a time-based electricity charge from their retailer, then the Tesla Powerwall 2 has the smarts to charge only at the ‘off-peak’ rates and discharge the power at peak rates. The actual financial benefit available depends on the tariffs of the electricity retailer, but are generally insufficient to merit the investment into a battery system alone.
How Do I Get a Tesla Powerwall 2 Battery?
To get a Tesla Powerwall 2 you need a local Tesla Australia accredited solar installer. You can click here to get a free quote .
Quotes vary depending on site conditions. Depends:
- 1 or 3 phase power supply, +$300 for 3 phase supply.
- Powerwall mounting location, battery mounting location is subject to many regulations, many locations that look good may be dangerous locations, a responsible installer will give you strict advice resulting in excessive distance between the Powerwall, Backup Gateway and SwitchBoard, cables may need to be upgraded.
- MSB is older and narrower and may need to be upgraded to use TESLA's backup features!