Australia's Origin Energy to market new Tesla solar storage battery

Tesla Motors has given marketing and distribution rights of its new solar battery storage product to Australia's largest gas and power retailer Origin Energy as part of global launch in just two countries outside of the United States.

Australia has the highest per-capita rooftop solar power mainly due to high retail prices for energy, which Tesla's new lithium ion battery called the Powerwall - used for storing solar energy for home power usage and charging electric cars - is set to capitalise on.

Origin chief executive for energy markets Frank Calabria said on Thursday said the company would package the Tesla storage solution with PV solar panels from Trina Solar Ltd and inverters from Israeli-based SolarEdge technologies.

Tesla said other Australian companies would also become distributers, though those firms weren't announced.

Australian climate advocates have said coupling solar PV panels with high capacity battery storage could be the cheapest way to obtain electricity within three years, creating a 24-billion-Australian dollar industry if just half of the nation's households adopted the technology.

Germany, where 30 percent of electricity comes from renewable energy, is the only other country outside of the United States launching the product.

Australian installation would commence from February 2016, Origin said. Endit