Much like every other day, Elon Musk has poured out another major announcement via his Twitter handle. The Tesla solar glass roof tiles were unveiled earlier last year as a co-joined effort between Telsa and its now owned solar roofing subsidiary SolarCity. We have since been waiting for the day when those beautiful tiles – which look just like normal roofing tiles — become available for order. And that day has finally arrived.
Through a tweet, Musk has shared the delightful news that the orders for Tesla solar glass roof will open today afternoon. No more details except the stipulated timeframe for the official release of its sleek and low-profile tiles have been shared with the masses. It may be a few days late but still falls in line with the rumored release date of April. Further, Musk has, as expected, cleared some air surrounding which tile variants will initially become available for order.
And the answer is that — Black smooth glass (the one which appears as a normal roof from the pavement, but contains a solar cell within) and textured solar roof tiles will be made available for order initially. The more premium-looking Tuscan and French Slate variants of these solar tiles will hit the order shelf in the next six odd months.
Tesla solar glass roof orders open this afternoon. I think it will be great. More in about 10 hours …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2017
@chriscardinal Black glass smooth and textured will be first. Tuscan and French Slate in about six months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2017
While most have presumed that the solar glass roof tiles will only be made available in the United States, Musk has announced that anyone from any country can order these tiles. Yes, you can just order them. You’ll have to wait for quite some time to be able to use the energy generated by them because U.S will be given priority in deployment. Once the State-side orders are completed over the span of the remaining year, Tesla-owned SolarCity would look towards international roof next year.
Solar roof can be ordered for almost any country. Deployment this year in the US and overseas next year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2017
As for the efficiency, Musk had stated during the launch that the first iteration of no product is upto the mark and needs refining over time. The current iteration of these solar roof tiles are only 98 percent efficient as compared to traditional panels. They actually have a two percent loss in efficiency but Tesla is currently working with 3M on improved coatings to change the same.
The most prominent detail, i.e the cost of the solar roof tiles still hasn’t been divulged by Musk in the tweets. This means we will have to wait until afternoon to know the complete details about the same. But, during the launch, he had mentioned that pricing would be competitive and probably cost less than the full cost of installation of a traditional roof and electricity from the power grid. It has also been said that pricing may differ on the basis of the roof structure.
Stay tuned and return back for more updates, especially on the pricing front. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for the same.
