* Sunny Boy Storage to be sold in Germany from March
* Product designed for Tesla's Powerwall
* Also to be launched in Italy, U.S., Britain (Adds details on product, context on industry)
FRANKFURT, Jan 18 (Reuters) - SMA Solar S92G.DE , Germany's largest solar company, on Monday said it would start selling an inverter designed for home storage systems, aiming to tap a market expected to thrive following the launch of Tesla's TSLA.O Powerwall battery.
"Within a year, the cumulated number of battery-storage systems installed in Germany so far has more than doubled to over 30,000, thanks to the decline in prices," SMA Solar Chief Executive Pierre-Pascal Urbon said in a statement.
The company will start selling "Sunny Boy Storage" to wholesalers from March, it said, adding the product was made "especially for high-voltage batteries like the Tesla Powerwall".
Tesla, best known for its electric cars, sparked global interest in the idea of self-powered homes in April, when it said it would offer lithium-ion batteries for households next year, called Powerwalls. Solar, the world's largest maker of solar inverters, will start selling the new system in Germany, which it said will then be rolled out to other markets, including Italy, Britain, Australia and the United States.
The company expects the German home storage market to grow by 20,000 systems, or nearly double, this year, while putting the global market potential for electrical storage at an annual 0.5-1.2 billion euros ($0.55-1.2 billion) over the medium term.
($1 = 0.9179 euros)