Tesla Motors made a surprising announcement last week saying that the batteries it uses in their electric vehicles will be delivered to utilities, businesses, and households this summer.
The company, Wired reported, revealed the 7kWh and 10kWh "Powerwall" models for household consumers, and the "Powerpack" for businesses.
As the name suggest, the Powerwall is a 220-pound, Lithium-ion wall battery measuring six inches deep. It allows households to store energy created from solar panels and go off the grid.
The 7kWh model cost $3,000 while the 10kWh model cost $3,500, and has a 10-year warranty.
Musk said that by using the Powerwall, consumers will have the benefit of charging it at night when power rates cost lower. Also, energy will always be available should the grid goes down temporarily
Meanwhile, the 100kWh Powerpack is design for businesses with bigger energy consumption. From the outside, it has the look and shape of refrigirator with a bigger storage capacity.
While Tesla didn't gave any further specifics on both devices, they pointed out that up to nine Powerwall batteries can be installed in one household with bigger energy consumption. As for the Powerpack, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said it can be "piled together as many as you want."
Retail company Target and Jackson Family Wines have signed up to test the Powerpack in some of their stores.
Meanwhile, electric utility firm Southern California Edison signed a partnership with Tesla and see how they could use the Powepack on a large-scale setup.
Experts say that while energy storage has been around since the 1970s, Tesla's entry in the market may just boost the industry of storing renewqble energy.
Senior energy storage analyst Ravi Manghani of GTM Research told Wired that the annual growth of battery efficiency is about 8%.
In addition, Matt Roberts, executive director of the Energy Storage Association explained that renewable energy is most effective when it gets store and be made available when needed.
This is different from utilities that produce energy and cannot store it.
"Our (Tesla) goal here," Musk said, "is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy at the extreme scale."
The new Tesla batteries are manufactured in the company's Gigafactory in Tahoe Reno, Nevada - a $5-Billion factory in partnership with Japanese firm Panasonic.
The plant, measuring more than a thousand acres and is nearing completion, will be responsible for producing about 35 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of cells and 50 GWh of battery packs annually by 2020.
