Tesla launched a new beefed-up battery and solar tile system in the US last Friday.

The Tesla Powerwall 2 will be available in Australia through a select number of suppliers and comes with 14 kilowatt-hours of storage capacity and peak output of 7 kilowatts, making it one of the most powerful available to the domestic market in Australia.

It has double the storage and output of its predecessor, the Powerwall 1, but will look much the same. It will retail in Australia at $8,000 per unit, before installation, but it does come with a built-in DC to AC energy inverter (unlike the Powerwall 1) which will reduce some costs, installation time and complexity.

The Powerwall 2 was launched in conjunction with Tesla’s new solar roof tile system which has been in the works for some time.

Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk showed off two versions of his company’s solar roof systems at the launch, a French slate lookalike and a Tuscan clay copy (pictured below), but it will also come in textured and smooth glass versions.

The tiles are made from quartz glass with integrated PV and currently have a two per cent loss on efficiency compared to traditional solar panels. Musk says the company is working with 3M on improving the tile coatings to potentially bring them up above normal efficiency.

The cost of the roof hasn’t been disclosed but Musk did say that it would be less than a normal roof if you factor in yearly electricity costs.

He says Telsa’s goal was to create a roof that looked better than a normal roof, generated electricity, lasted longer, had better insulation, and actually had an installed cost less than a normal roof plus the cost of electricity.

In July, Chamberlain Architects announced a new multi-res project in Northcote, Victoria that will see 20 homes and 29 apartments hooked up to solar panels and batteries to create a mini grid.

Each house will have a 6.4kWh battery and the apartments will share a Tesla Powerpack.

Tesla isn’t the only company that has a household battery system – other manufacturers such as Samsung, Panasonic, Build Your Dreams and Zen Energy are entering the market, with some bidding to outprice Tesla.

Nathan Johnson

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