Mercedes-Benz Energy batteries can store up to 20kWh of power for your home

Mercedes-Benz Energy launches in the UK with battery storage systems delivering up to 20kWh of stored power, enough to power the average home.

It’s a couple of years since Tesla revealed their Powerwall battery storage system to allow homeowners to store the power they produce from solar panels rather than send it back to the grid, and now Mercedes-Benz Energy join Tesla in the UK with their own offerings.

Using batteries originally designed for Mercedes cars, the Mercedes Energy batteries come in modules of 2.5kWh, with the ability to run up to eight packs together for a total storage of 20kWh – that’s nearly 50 per cent more than Tesla’s Powerwall 2 system.

Mercedes are working with firms like Alternergy, Innasol and Wind & Sun to deliver a complete home solution in the UK, but aren’t very keen to dish out prices. So we’ve tried to estimate the likely costs.

The most likely way homeowners will choose to generate their own power in the UK is with solar panels, and a solar panel array big enough to deliver the average home usage of 14kWh per day is likely to cost you around £10k to have installed.

Tesla’s Powerwall 2 comes with 14kWh of storage, and that costs around $5,500 (no UK prices yet) which will mean it will cost at least the same in pounds – £5,000 – when we do get a UK price. We can’t see the Mercedes Energy system being wildly different in price.

So if you want any chance of being completely off-grid using the Mercedes Energy batteries you’re probably going to end up spending approaching £20k to do that. Far more if you have a big house or a power hungry family.

By our reckoning, that probably means about a 20 year pay back, although rising energy prices will eat in to that, but the technology is likely to be defunct well before then as battery technology moves on.

But if you want to be off-grid it is doable. UK sunshine permitting.