Tesla CEO Elon Musk stood in front of a gathered crowd of several hundred people on Friday to unveil his latest, much-ballyhooed vision for the future: a world powered by his companys solar roofs, with a Powerwall 2 battery on the wall and a Tesla automobile in the driveway.
As pictures of the new roof tiles flashed on a video screen behind Musk, audible gasps escaped from the attendees. From French slate to Spanish tile to traditional asphalt, Teslas new roofing materials mimic closely the roofing materials and are virtually indistinguishable from the ground (and, in some cases, look better than the originals).
Musk says the new solar roofs will cost less than a traditional roof plus the cost of electricity and last longer than traditional roofs which, according to the National Roofing Contractors Association, "are designed to provide useful service for about 20 years. Some roof system types, such as slate, clay tile and certain metal (e.g., copper) systems, can last longer."
Prior to showing real-life examples of solar-roof installations, Musk unveiled the Powerwall 2, a 7 kW, 14 kWh battery system to store the power the solar roof captures during the day so homeowners can use it at night. The system will cost $5,500 and come from Tesla Energy, the proposed name for the merged company of Tesla and SolarCity.
The merger has not been approved by either companys shareholders, though the vote is expected to take place on Nov. 17.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.