The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary home energy storage product manufactured by Tesla Energy. The Powerwall stores electricity for solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting, and backup power. The Powerwall was introduced in 2015 as Powerwall 1 with limited production. A larger model—Powerwall 2—went into mass production in early 2017 at Tesla's Giga Nevada factory, with a more capable model with an internal DC–to–AC inverter—Powerwall 3—entering production in late 2023. The millionth Powerwall was installed in 2025.
History As Tesla Motors (now Tesla, Inc.) developed batteries for its electric car business, it also started experimenting with using batteries for energy storage. Starting in 2012, Tesla installed prototype battery packs (later developed into the Tesla Powerpack) at the locations of a few industrial customers.
In November 2013, Tesla announced that it would build Giga Nevada, a factory to produce lithium-ion batteries. On April 30, 2015, the company announced that it would apply its battery technology to a home energy storage system: the Powerwall. The device would allow customers to store electricity for solar self-consumption, time-of-use load-shifting, and backup power. The device was initially announced to have power output of 2 kilowatt (kW) continuous and 3.3 kW peak, but CEO Elon Musk said at the June 2015 Tesla shareholders meeting that this would be more than doubled to 5 kW steady with 7 kW peak, with no increase in price. Two models of Powerwall were planned: a 7 kilowatt-hour (kWh) capacity model for daily cycle use (solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting) and a higher capacity 10 kWh model for customers who also wanted backup power. By March 2016, however, Tesla had removed all references to its 10 kWh battery from the Powerwall website, as well as the company's press kit. The production units would ultimately offer a capacity of 6.4 kWh. Five hundred pilot units were built and installed during 2015, each being built at the Tesla Fremont Factory. The Giga Nevada factory started limited production of Powerwalls and Powerpacks in January 2016 using battery cells produced elsewhere, and began mass production of cells in January 2017. The Powerwall 2 was unveiled in October 2016 at Universal Studios' Colonial Street backlot set. The Powerwall 2 had a 13.5 kWh capacity and was capable of delivering 5 kW of power continuously and up to 7 kW of peak power in short bursts (up to 10 seconds). Powerwall 2 devices were paired with a device called the Backup Gateway, which acted as a transfer switch and a load center. In April 2020, Tesla announced that it had installed 100,000 Powerwalls, five years after introducing the product. Tesla started making several refinements to the Powerwall in 2021. On April 26, during the First Quarter 2021 Financial Results call with investors, the company announced that it had been quietly shipping upgraded versions of the Powerwall 2 since November 2020, which could deliver higher amounts of power, and that the functionality would be enabled via an over-the-air software update. Just a few days later, on April 29, the company started filing for building permits for projects that would use the Powerwall+, a device that combines the functions of a Powerwall 2, the Tesla Backup Gateway and the Tesla Solar Inverter. The combination simplifies installation and allows for even greater power delivery during periods of full sun. In May 2021, Tesla announced that it had installed 200,000 Powerwalls, selling 100,000 devices in a single year, the same amount that the company had previously taken five years to achieve. The next month, in July 2021, Musk revealed that the company had a backlog of 80,000 Powerwall orders, but due to the global chip shortage, the company would only be able to make less than 35,000 units in the quarter.
Powerwall models Tesla has offered several models of the Powerwall since its introduction in April 2015. The original Powerwall (retroactively referred to as the Powerwall 1) has a 6.4 kWh capacity and is capable of delivering 3.3 kW of power. Tesla introduced an improved Powerwall 2 in October 2016 with a 13.5 kWh capacity and capable of delivering 5 kW of power continuously and up to 7 kW of peak power in short bursts (up to 10 seconds). Later versions of the Powerwall 2, shipped after November 2020, had the same capacity, but can deliver 5.8 kW of power continuously and up to 10 kW of peak power. The Powerwall+, introduced in April 2021, combines the functions of a Powerwall 2, a Backup Gateway and a solar inverter. Up to 10 Powerwall 2 or Powerwall+ units may be combined to expand the capacity and maximum power of the system.. The Powerwall 2 was discontinued on November 15, 2025. Powerwall 3 began rollout in September 2023 with a major power increase to 11.5 kW from the 5 kW of Powerwall 2. Like the earlier Powerwall+ it includes an integrated solar inverter, but instead of separate solar and battery assemblies, the two are integrated into a single device, with more functional rectangular packaging that requires less wall space, aimed at easier installation and more capability in a single cabinet on the customer premises.
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