Tesla Motors confirmed to Electrek that the company is now installing the Powerwall, a new home energy storage system, for “pilot customers”:

“We are currently in production and have started installing Powerwalls with pilot customers. Over the next few weeks we will continue to ramp up volume production,” Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said. Tesla will initially only deliver the 7 kWh version of the Powerwall and the 10 kWh version will follow in “early 2016”.

The 7 kWh Powerwall cost $3,000 and is designed for daily cycling, while the 10 kWh version, which costs $3,500, has a different battery chemistry optimized for weekly cycling, making it more appropriate for backup power.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the production of stationary storage battery packs will shift from Tesla’s Fremont factory to the Gigafactory in Q1 2016, which presumably means the company is waiting for its new battery factory to be ready in order to start production on the 10 kWh Powerwalls in “early 2016”.

Earlier this year, the company doubled the power output of the Powerwall to 7 kW at peak usage and 5 kW for steady usage. Only a week after presenting the new product line in April, Musk confirmed that the company received over 38,000 reservations for the Powerwall. The reservations didn’t require a deposit and were more of a “show of interest” than anything, but the company expects to sell more than one battery pack per installation. Even though the number hasn’t been updated since, there’s a clear interest for the product line.

The first markets to receive the Powerwall will be North America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Australia.

The Powerwall covers the residential side of the Tesla Energy business, but the company also sells Powerpacks; scalable 100 kWh battery packs for commercial and utility-scale projects. The company already inked a few Powerpack deals including a project with 3 high schools in San Diego and a 500 MWh supply agreement with Advanced Microgrid Solutions.

Picture: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

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