Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the solar glass roof tiles everyone has been waiting to grab were being made available for pre-order soon enough. And via an official blog post, we have now received the complete word on how much roofing your house with these modern solar roof tiles will cost and when they’ll be deployed across the globe.
For those unaware, the solar roof tiles were announced back in October 2016 when Tesla was in the process of acquiring SolarCity. During the launch event, Elon Musk had taken center stage and dramatically shown off demo houses with roofs outfitted with their new solar tiles. He had then promised that Tesla was aimed at providing an affordable but premium solar roofing options, similar to traditional tiles. However, its solar roofs include a solar cell embedded in the tiles that’ll steadily help augment all your energy needs.
Presently, as has been revealed earlier, Tesla is making only two of the four tile designs available to homeowners. You can pre-order the Black smooth glass (the one which appears as a normal roof from the pavement but contains a solar cell within) and the textured solar roof tiles at the moment. The more premium-looking Tuscan and French Slate variants of these solar tiles will hit the order shelf in the next six odd months, said Musk earlier via a tweet.
Tesla has revealed that U.S citizens looking to upgrade their roofs could be staring at costs of around $21.85 per square foot of Solar Roof tile for a 3,000 square foot roof. This is lower than the estimated cost of solar roofing an existing house’s roof, which stands at less than $24.50 per square foot. Talking about the costs, the blog post writes:
Although the cost of our solar tiles is more expensive up front, it can be more than offset by the value of energy the tiles produce. In many cases, the reduction in a home’s electricity bill over time will be greater than the cost of the roof.
In the blog post, Tesla mentions that the cost of roofing varies very widely across from one state to state and countries as well. It is believed the experience of altering your roof is an even painful experience than filling out multiple forms while buying a vehicle (something Musk wants to change) at a dealership.
Thus, the company has decided to be upfront and transparent with their approach to solar roofing. There will be no hidden costs and every penny you spend will be utilized towards building your new solar-tiled roof. This pricing is competitive as compared to regular roofing options, which you can check for yourself using the Solar Roof Calculator. It takes into account factors such as roof size, the average local price of electricity, and how much sunlight a neighborhood receives throughout the year.
In addition, you also do not have to worry about the durability and degradation of the solar roof tiles unlike those made of asphalt or concrete. The infinite lifetime is one of the highlights of the tiles because of the tempered coating — which protects the tile but causes 2 percent loss in efficiency. Musk is heavily advertising this feature no his Instagram. In the blog post, Tesla has described the same as under:
Solar Roof is the most durable roof available and the glass itself will come with a warranty for the lifetime of your house, or infinity, whichever comes first.
All the energy generated using this roof, which will be an amalgamation of solar tiles and normal times depending on your electricity needs, will be stored in Tesla’s Powerwall 2 storage packs. They were also revealed alongside the new solar tiles at the October event. They are capable of storing 14kWh of energy, with a 5kW continuous power draw, and 7kW peak.
