Amid Tesla's acquisition of solar installer SolarCity last year, the company unveiled its solar tiles, as well as new versions of batteries that store energy captured from the sun, to then build buildings. The company has developed four styles of roof tiles for different types of habitats: Tuscany glass, smooth glass, slate glass and textured glass tiles.
@elonmusk How are the Solar Shingles coming along? Is there an ETA? Hoping my roof survives till then.
—Michael Hols (@HolsMichael) March 24, 2017
Tesla has published some more details since its event in October last year where an original presentation of the tiles was made, in which the attendees could not identify the normal tiles from those produced by SolarCity, installed in different houses that were around from the event venue. This presentation included some relevant information about the product's materials and how it works.
But information has been scant about prices and where the tiles would first be available.
Production of the shingles was scheduled to begin in mid-2017, according to the company's website, so this reveal hints that they're hard at work on even moving the launch up a bit. The company, which says the solar roof will last longer and cost less than a traditional roof, also said in a letter to shareholders in February that it will start selling and installing the product later this year. This is one more example of the unbridled pace of work with which Musk is used to developing his projects, which so far has only given him amazing results.
Solar + Storage now powering a sustainable Kauai pic.twitter.com/50dusJLzvM
- Tesla (@Tesla) March 8, 2017
To support the production of solar roof tiles, Tesla announced a solar cell manufacturing partnership with Panasonic. Production is scheduled to begin in Buffalo, NY this year.
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