Tesla’s Solar Roof

These days anything that #ElonMusk says turns into trending gold, which thanks to Tesla’s recent acquisition of Solar City, puts a huge spotlight on the solar energy industry. At the end of 2016, Elon Musk announced the Tesla Solar roof and we get a ton of questions about whether we’re installing it, how it works, and how much it costs.

At this point we don’t know when the solar roof will be released on the consumer market, but in true Tesla fashion, consumers can still reserve and put a down payment on a solar roof. No word on when they’ll actually get a solar roof (or any other detail on the cost or installation process). But that doesn’t mean that the industry isn’t guessing!

Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Spice Solar, has taken a stab in this article. While I think that he has been particularly conservative on the pricing, the article gives an overview of how the solar roof might be implemented in the real world. The installation process of traditional solar can be a little mysterious to consumers, so I appreciate that he has explained some of the key factors that will have to be mitigated for real world use of a solar roof.

He also mentions the first generation of solar roofing material which a lot of people don’t know about. Surprise, you’ve probably looked right at solar shingles and didn’t even know it. Check out the roof of the Watershed Resource Center at Hendry’s Beach (hint: the darker shingles are PV)!