Another major name in home energy storage has been officially added to the list of providers for South Australia’s Home Battery Scheme, with Tesla revealing its Powerwall had been approved for the massive program.
In a statement issued last week, Tesla said its 13.5kWh lithium-ion home battery systems were now eligible for the full $6,000 subsidy – although participating South Australian households might have to wait a little while for delivery.
The company has set up a temporary stall at Adelaide’s Rundle Mall – it will be open through to Sunday 10 February – to spruik its role in the scheme, and the specs of its storage technology.
Pricing of Powerwall is $12,350 (including hardware), so with the full $6,000 subsidy the cost would be $6,350, but with added installation costs ranging from $1,450 to $4,000.
All that amounts to quite a decent chunk of cash to stump up, particularly for the concession-holding households that would actually have access to the full subsidy.
But there will be time to save up – Tesla has confirmed there is a 12-week waiting period for the batteries.*
South Australia’s battery subsidy, launched last October by the state’s then-newly elected Liberal government, offers up to 40,000 homes access to grants and low-interest finance for both battery storage and new rooftop solar installations.
The $200 million scheme – half in grants and the other half in loans provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – is forecast to add up to 400MWh of storage to the state’s grid, which could in turn time shift the output of solar, and provide essential grid services.
As we have reported, the program has also spawned major manufacturing deals with German giant sonnen, international player Alpha-ESS, and then with Canada’s Eguana technologies.
That’s because in the first nine-week period of the scheme, the government mandated that battery systems manufactured or assembled in South Australia would be given priority.
As a result, sonnen Group began assembly of its sonnenBatteries in Australia in November last year, at the old Holden car plant in Adelaide. It intends to produce 10,000 batteries a year at the new factory.
In the same month, Alpha-ESS signed an agreement with the state government to make more than 8,000 of their SMILE 5 home batteries in Adelaide a year.
Tesla, meanwhile, is already installing 1,100 home battery systems as part of the first two stages of a proposed 250MW VPP unveiled by the previous Labor government.
*This article has been amended to reflect current pricing estimates obtained from Tesla
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
