When we hear about Tesla the only thing that comes to our mind is electric cars and Mars missions. Now the CEO has placed his eyes towards solar roofs. Tesla is going to focus its efforts on the Solar Roof for the coming year, CEO Elon Musk told an audience on March.
During the unveiling of Tesla’s highly anticipated model Y entry-level compact SUV, the CEO shared his plans for introducing solar rooftops. It may be taken as the sign that Tesla is changing its working platform from the road to home.
The companies new solar roof technology is a game changer, it looks like any other rooftop with its sleek design. The new solar panels have made their way to only a few homes, but that’s soon to change as said by the CEO.
That aesthetically pleasing design combined with affordability and long time warranty had solar energy expert Senthil Balasubramanian predicting Tesla would be a “Game Changer” for clean energy.
“This is definitely going to be the year of the Solar Roof and Powerwall,” he told the audience. He clarified that the Tesla’s solar efforts were hampered by problems related to its Model 3 car and that those issues are now in the company’s past.
“Because of like the extreme challenges with Model 3 production we had to basically allocate all resources to Model 3 production because otherwise, we’re going to die,” Musk said to a bit of laughter.
According to Musk, this innovative technology would be really helpful for future energy sources. where the world plans to be 100% renewable. The future of renewable energy source will be heavily biased towards solar power thus productive solar rooftops are a must.
Solar panels harness the clean energy from the sun and stores it in the battery. Musk said in the near future solar roofs plus electric cars will be introduced. He further added that the world has a fully sustainable future and that such optimistic thoughts give positive vibes.
The heavy demand of Tesla’s Model 3 SUV which entered production in July 2017 resulted in the withdrawal of the solar project.
The company only produced around 2,000 premium Model S and X vehicles per week before its introduction. Later it faced a huge demand and had to work through a backlog of nearly 500,000 orders. The chaotic stretch to reach those figures led to Tesla facing a “severe threat of death”. Musk said that 2018 “felt like probably aging five years in one.”
The solar rooftop project was introduced in 2016 itself but was discontinued due to the financial and power crisis. Tesla also installed solar roofs for certain residents of the USA in 2018, but the Model 3 left other projects without enough power cells to fulfill orders.
Musk said that the team can “finally allocate engineering attention” to solar projects. This repeats his remarks in the third-quarter earnings call. There he said: “we also start getting into volume production of the Solar Roof next year.”
Cost of the solar roofs.
Musk has released the details of solar roof installed in one of the few American citizens. The roof was around 200 sq foot it costs about $50000 including the federal solar investment tax credit.
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Per sq foot of solar tiles- $42
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Per sq foot of dummy tiles- $11
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The power generated – 9.85 kilowatt
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The owners of the houses appreciated a lot about the solar roof, they are even ready to do it again. The company has been cleared to offer solar roof leases in Florida as recently reported by A Roofing Contractor. The solar roof will be a revolutionary change in the world of energy and thus will contribute a lot to 100% renewability.
