Last week, Tesla announced a brand-new variant of its popular home battery, the Powerwall 3. The new Powerwall 3P model is continuing to innovate sustainable technology with its native 3-phase inverter. In today’s blog, we will be breaking down what’s changed between Powerwall 3 and Powerwall 3P, the significance of 3-phase and why this is such big news for the brand that claims to be leading the global market for home energy storage.
What’s changed?
The newly announced Powerwall 3P will change the way that UK homes connected to three phase supply will buy and install their home battery. The Tesla Powerwall 3P eliminates the need for 3 separate Powerwalls, including 3-phase inverters, into one unit, achieving a whole-home backup.
What is 3-phase?
For those who don’t know, 3-phase refers to how a property is connected to the grid. In the UK, single-phase power is common, but with he rise of more electrical load on UK homes three phase is becoming more popular, and already highly common for UK businesses. In past models, this has looked aesthetically clunky, with homeowners needing to stack 3 Tesla Powerwall 3’s together to achieve three phase. Three phase has been proven to be more efficient, economical to install and even supports a higher power demand, so it makes sense that more homes are being set up with this approach. However, the Tesla Powerwall 3 originally only supports a single phase backup per unit, meaning more units are needed, meaning more of a hit to the homeowner’s wallet.
Why is the Powerwall 3P big news?
Tesla has been quiet over the last few years, with the Tesla Powerwall 3 released 3 years ago in 2023. In that time, other brands have been providing the UK, especially with systems that are competitive in price and power, such as Sigenergy. There have also been other competitors who have already offered a native three-phase solution – so why is Powerwall 3P going to make a splash in a sea of competitors?
The Tesla Powerwall 3P offers something that other companies don’t – simplicity.
The new 3P will offer the same 3-phase power with its 3-phase inverter, all in one unit, with one installation, whilst balancing load across all 3 inverters. Even big competition such as Sigenergy requires stacking of multiple 6 kWh modules to match the Powerwall’s 13.5 kWh capacity. Looking at BYD, who have a 3-phase inverter system, you need to purchase an additional inverter separately to make it truly “all in one”. You don’t get that with the upcoming Powerwall 3P; it truly is all inside the one box.
The Tesla Powerwall 3P is described as also being able to analyse energy consumption, solar production, weather forecast and dynamic electricity tariffs with it built in AI. This will allow homeowners to see when to store or discharge any energy generated. The 3P does not have a price as of yet, but we can already see that it will set itself as an improvement on the Powerwall 3 and a product for other brands to watch out for. Let us know if you’re excited by this news in the comments, and make sure to follow us on social media for the latest renewables news.
