On Thursday night, Tesla announced that it will begin selling a home battery, the Powerwall, to store and distribute electricity in consumer homes.

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The Tesla Energy Powerwall

The Powerwall Home Battery line is made by Tesla’s new division, Tesla Energy (see the press kit). When the products ship, late in the summer, there will be two versions: A 7 kilowatt-hour model for $3,000, and a 10kWh model for $3,500. (Prices don’t include installation.) There will also be versions scaled for businesses.

The home Powerwall products are wall-mountable, about the size of an on-demand water heater (about 3 by 4 feet), but thinner (7 inches). They are available in different colors.

At the announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained that the Powerwall products can be used to take power generated by the “handy fusion reactor in the sky,” and then store that power for when said reactor isn’t over the consumer’s house and powering their roof-mounted solar panels.

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Elon Musk announcing Powerwall (Photo: Tesla video stream)

He also pointed out that the Powerwall is useful for people who don’t have reliable power, or who want to live off the power grid entirely.

While Musk pitched solar as the best solution to the world’s growing power needs, he also pointed out that customers don’t need solar power to use the Powerwall. It can be used to store electricity that comes in from the grid, either as a backup power source or to help utilities level their power generating needs over the course of a day.