Immediately after Telsa Motors acquired SolarCity, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk made a huge announcement: Tesla’s new solar roof product will cost less to manufacture and install than a traditional roof—even before factoring savings from the power bill. “Electricity,” Musk said, “Is just a bonus.”
“It’s looking quite promising that a solar roof actually cost less than normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account,” said Musk, “so the basic proposition would be ‘Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, last twice as long, cost less and by the way generates electricity’ why would you get anything else.”
As bold as the claim appears to be, Musk isn’t referring the retail price of the shingles, which are still considered a premium product. The terra cotta and slate roofs the Tesla shingles mimic remain among the most expensive roofing materials on the market, costing as much as 20 times more than asphalt shingles, said Bloomberg.
Pricing details were vague when Musk first unveiled the tiles on October 28th . He initially stated that someone purchasing a Tesla roof next summer (after the product launches) would save more money than someone who buys a traditional roof, plus electricity from the grid. Large houses could expect to save $100,000 “over a period.”
Today, we know that the cost savings are derived from reorganizing the roofing supply chain, which Musk refers to as incredibly “inefficient,” where the cost of products are linked to their weight when produced in volume. Not to mention, traditional roof materials are brittle, heavy, and bulky, and thus subject to frequent breakage and high shipping costs.
Engineered in Tesla’s automotive and glass division, the new tempered-glass roof tiles are inlaid with integrated solar cells and weigh as little as a third, a quarter, and sometimes a fifth of other concrete and ceramic roof solutions, making them much easier to ship. Customers have the option of selecting from four distinct tile styles: Tuscan glass tile, slate glass tile, textured glass tile, and smooth glass tile. And thanks to a special coating, the tile appears transparent when viewed directly, only taking the designated style when viewed from the street level.
Musk envisions the solar panel tiles as but a single part of a threefold solar energy solution that also includes the Tesla Powerwall battery for storage, and Tesla’s electric vehicles for transportation.
Following the acquisition, Musk plans to market and sell the tiles as part of a threefold solar energy solution that includes generation (solar panel tiles), storage (Tesla’s Powerwall battery), and transportation (Tesla’s electric vehicles).
With four to five million new roofs annually built in the United States, customers pursuing self-sufficiency can now purchase all the necessary products directly from Tesla itself.
Source: Wired , Verge , & Business Insider
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