Tesla Powerwall has huge potential in South Africa: Tesla CTO

Tesla Motors Chief Technical Officer and co-founder J.B. Straubel said that South Africa could be a huge market for battery storage because of consistent power blackouts in the country.

Bloomberg quoted Straubel as saying that South Africa has a big “mismatch between demand and supply”.

“South Africa actually has an electric grid that has huge implications for storage,” Straubel said at a US Energy Information Administration energy conference.

“South Africa is a huge market for storage, where we can both effect resiliency, as well as backup, as well as helping expand the infrastructure to do more,” Straubel is quoted as saying.

Tesla Powerwall in South Africa

Tesla recently unveiled its new Powerwall battery system for homes and businesses, which it said is the missing piece in breaking the dependence on the conventional power grid and fossil fuels.

Powerwall forms part of a new suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities, which the company calls Tesla Energy.

Homes, business, and utilities can use Tesla batteries to store energy to manage power demand, provide backup power, and increase grid resilience.

The Tesla Powerwall is available as a 7kWh unit for $3,000, and a 10kWh unit for $3,500 – excluding inverters and installation – and will deliver to pre-order customers by “late summer” (July – September 2015).

A company spokesperson told MyBroadband soon after the unveiling that the Tesla Powerwall home battery will be available worldwide – including in South Africa – by the end of 2016.

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