Tesla has launched its Powerwall home battery in another European country this week, this time on the island of Malta.
The Tesla Energy account on X announced the news on Thursday, saying that the Powerwall home battery system had launched in the island country. Buyers in the country may also qualify for a government incentive of up to 7,200 euros (~$7,786) when adding the home battery to a pre-existing solar interface, as Tesla notes in the post.
Although Tesla recently debuted its next-generation Powerwall 3, those in Malta and most other markets around the world are still the last-gen Powerwall 2. Tesla launched the updated Powerwall 3 in the first country outside the U.S. last month, officially debuting the new hardware in Canada.
Tesla didn’t officially launch Powerwall 3 orders until February, though specs had already been listed on the company’s website, and installations were quietly occurring throughout much of last year in the U.S. As of November, Tesla had deployed more than 1 GWh of Powerwall units in Europe, and the company announced in February that it had reached a worldwide total of 600,000 Powerwall installations.
In certain areas, Powerwall and solar energy hardware owners can use the technology as part of Tesla’s pilot programs of what are called Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). A VPP essentially uses several Powerwall owners to create a giant, distributed battery across a large region, letting owners sell stored electricity back to the grid during times of peak demand.
Tesla’s VPPs are currently being piloted in California, Texas, Massachusetts, and a number of other territories within and beyond the U.S.
Sales growth for Tesla’s energy division is expected to outpace that of the company’s automotive business this year, according to statements from Elon Musk made during the company’s Q3 2023 earnings call.
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