Tesla CEO says company to start selling solar roof tiles

Tesla founder and chief executive officer, Elon Musk has announced its solar energy tile, Tesla Solar Roof Tile is now available for pre-order. This allows consumers to choose how many solar tiles they need based on their home’s electricity consumption, the company said.

After Tesla acquired SolarCity in November, Musk said Tesla’s new solar roof product may actually cost less to manufacture and install than a traditional roof_even before savings from the power bill. However, there has been a slight delay. According to Tesla, a typical homeowner is set to pay US$21.85 per square foot for a Solar Roof made up of 35% solar tiles.

This has been confirmed via a tweet by CEO Elon Musk who said that pre-orders this afternoon.

Resembling normal roofing shingles, the solar tiles will be offered in a variety of styles, from slate and terracotta to smooth or textured dark gray.

The company said its solar roofs would cost between 10 and 15 per cent less than an ordinary new roof plus traditional solar panels. They’ll go to US customers first this year and to other countries next year.

To prove the toughness of its solar tiles, Tesla fired baseball-size hailstones at its tiles and traditional roof tiles – at 110 miles per hour. Australian customers can place an order for Solar Roof for $1,310 on the Tesla website. And I think something similar needs to happen to solar.

Tesla’s solar tiles were expected to cost about $68 per square foot, but instead they’ll go for $42.

Telsa’s roof tiles use a tempered glass and proprietary solar cells manufactured through a partnership with Panasonic.

“Solar roof can be ordered for nearly any country”, Musk tweeted early Wednesday.

Tesla’s new Solar Roof page includes a calculator to estimate how much a home owner will save over time. In the near future, Tesla plans to team up with Panasonic for larger volume manufacturing, as they move their production operations to NY. One of the disadvantages of conventional rooftop solar systems is that they clash with the look of buildings, especially those with historical significance. Solar roofs have been talked about and attempted for years, but have never been priced right or worked well enough to become popular.

Musk hopes to revolutionize how solar power and clean energy are harvested and restored. The rest would consist of “Tesla’s cheaper non-solar tiles which would blend in with the solar ones”.