Tesla teams up with Australia utility to begin selling solar+storage systems

Dive Brief:

Australian energy company Origin Energy last week began selling Tesla Motors’ Powerwall storage devices to its customers as part of a bundled package, PV Tech Storage reports.
The package includes a Tesla Powerwall with Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar’s PV panels and a SolarEdge inverter.
Days after Origin’s announcement, competitor CSR Bradford said it would begin packaging Tesla Powerwall storage system with its solar installations.

Dive Insight:

The solar-plus-storage market is posed to grow rapidly in Australia, and Origin Energy was quick out of the gate, offering a combined solar-storage system to customers starting on Dec. 10 with the first installations expected in February 2016.

“By offering rooftop solar with home batteries, Origin is able to provide households with greater control over their energy use than ever before,” Frank Calabria, Origin’s CEO of energy markets, said.

Origin is selling its solar + storage package for about AUD (Australian dollar)16,500 (about U.S. $11,900), according to press reports. Origin has 4.3 million retail energy customers and more than 400,000 solar power customers.

Shortly after Origin’s announcement, a competitor, CSR Bradford, began selling a solar-storage package to customers at around AUD 10,000. Bradford expects to begin installations in March 2016.

The attraction of solar-plus-storage is likely to stoke competition in Australia. Electricity prices in Australia are on the rise while feed-in tariffs are being reduced. That combination means that many homeowners are likely to be looking for ways to make their solar panels more economic.

For both existing and new customers, it is going to make sense to combine storage and solar power to store power to defer the expense of paying for higher cost peak evening energy, according to a recent GTM Research report.

Both Origin and Bradford are the 6.4-kWh model battery that can provide 3.3 kW of continuous and peak power for charge and discharge. The battery storage systems have a performance warranty of up to 10 years.