This is super cool!
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the company’s new solar roof tiles will be affordable to the average homeowner. Musk says that they will be roughly the same cost as the typical shingle roof.
As with many of his projects, there have been several delays in the production of the solar rooftops. Initially, when Musk first announced the product in 2017, the company was supposed to start building them the following year, in 2018.
However, Tesla ran into some roadblocks in the production and delayed the rollout two years in a row.
Musk said that the reason for the delay was that he wanted to make sure he brought the best possible product to market. Specifically, he wanted to ensure that the roof would last for 30 years without needing a replacement.
During a shareholder meeting this year, Musk said that it has been a very challenging process to complete the very ambitious goals that the company set for itself.
“We are about to complete version 3 of the solar roof. This is actually quite a hard technology problem to have an integrated solar cell with a roof tile, have it look good, and last for 30 years. I am very excited about version 3 of solar roof. We have a shot at being equal to a comp shingle roof plus someone’s utility cost or being lower than that. That’s one of the cheapest roofs available. So you can have a great roof with better economics than a normal fairly cheap roof and your utility bill,” Musk said, according to Electrek.
The durability of the roof will be guaranteed for life, and will be guaranteed to generate power for up to 30 years, after that it may need repairs.
When the idea was first proposed, Tesla estimated that the solar roof would cost roughly $21.85 per square foot, which is extremely expensive.
To contrast some of the other prices found in the industry, the average shingle roof can cost as little as $4 per square foot, and a tile roof can sometimes cost up to $20 per square foot.
You can read more from our friends over at Anonews.
