Tesla shipped a record number of electric vehicles in the most recent quarter and started production at its new China factory. However, 2019 was not “the year of the solar roof,” despite Elon Musk’s aspirations. Your humble narrator tracked down some solar roof installations to witness Tesla’s solar glass in the wild. We’ve got pictures.

Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dubbed 2019 “the year of the solar roof,” its long-promised building-integrated photovoltaic product.

It turned out that 2019 was not the year of the solar roof.

At the end of 2019, Musk announced in a memo to employees that Tesla’s first priority was to deliver “all cars” by year end — before the expiration of Tesla’s EV tax credit. Tesla built almost 105,000 cars in the fourth quarter and delivered roughly 112,000 vehicles — both records for the pioneering EV maker that have driven Tesla’s share price to new highs. Tesla has a market cap of $94.5 billion as of today.

Musk’s second priority, “just as important, is that we immediately increase the rate of solar deployments by a significant degree,” said the CEO in the same memo.

More than three years after its introduction, and after having received deposits from interested homeowners, Tesla has connected just a handful of solar-integrated roofs to the grid.

Getting the exact number of solar roof installations from Tesla is difficult as Tesla press relations doesn’t relate to the press. Twitter user Nikola’s Stache suggests that less than 100 solar roofs have been installed and only a handful of version 3 roofs are complete.

Late last year, Musk introduced version 3.0 of the solar roof tile and, with characteristic optimism, claimed that the company would ramp production to 1,000 roofs per week by December of 2019. In a conference call, Musk said:

Kunal Ginotra, senior director of energy operations, said that Tesla has “increased the size and power density” of the tiles while changing some of the materials and reducing the number of parts and assemblies.

Ginotra said that the goal was to install the solar roof as quickly as traditional composition shingles — with a target of eight hours. This requires a streamlined process of getting parts to the field along with assembly equipment to allow customization for flashing, edges and trim in the field.

Musk said that Tesla “was still sort of figuring things out” with version 1 and 2. He said version 3 is “finally ready for the big time. And so we’re scaling up production of the version 3 solar roof at our Buffalo Gigafactory.”

Photos of the solar roof in the wild

Here’s the version 3.0 roof in Cupertino, California. This installation included a Tesla battery.

This home in Los Gatos, California had V2 tiles on the roof and was undergoing a complete remodel.

There were several piles of unused or scrapped tiles on the side of the home.

Here’s a version 2.0 installation in San Jose, California

Here’s another San Jose home with a version 2.0 roof.

Here’s a roof that’s seen better days on a home in San Jose, California. According to Nikola’s Stache , these homeowners have pulled a permit for the version 3.0 roof.

Twitter user Austin Flack provided a time-lapse of his version 3 installation.

Progress. #solarglass #tesla #solarroof pic.twitter.com/hy21vicLkP

— Austin Flack (@austinflack) January 9, 2020

Prepping for Austin Flack’s version 3 install.

Josh Pomilio, a Tesla solar glass crew lead, put up these version 3 installation photos on Instagram taken of a home in San Jose. This installation included two Tesla battery units and three inverters, according to the home owners.

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More articles from Eric Wesoff

I would like more information on this- Cost ? Availability in Ga ?

You can go to the Tesla website and see the estimated cost for YOUR address. I don’t think they are available in GA yet.

Do they withstand extreme cold temperatures ? this is only for California

@Eric Wesoff, thank you for the pictures. I can see these attached panel groups have a plastic header with ‘connectors’ built in. Unless these panelized tile have a built in power optimizer or micro inverter? It will be difficult to isolate and troubleshoot a bad tile in the system. Early on a company named Andalay, which was bought out by GE was building solar PV panels with micro-inverter that had molded in connectors that slid into and snapped together to create a “wireless” panel string. Found out pretty quickly things like snow and dew could find a way into the ‘sealed’ connection and start corrosion and failures.

It seems even TESLA admits: “He said, “The solar roof does not make financial sense for someone with a relatively new roof.” Kunal Ginotra, senior director of energy operations, said that Tesla has “increased the size and power density” of the tiles while changing some of the materials and reducing the number of parts and assemblies.”

I predict that this is the roof of the future! I am very excited about this product! Is it available in Massachusetts? I would like to offer/install on the homes I build. I have a 55 and older community that will be underway in early spring 56 units, and would love to use this product on this project. Lastly, is there required installation training offered ?

Although, solar PV “tiles” have been around since 2005 or so, there are some reasons, they have not caught on. IF TESLA is vague on costs, try a company named CertainTeed, they have the “Apollo II series” of solar PV roofing tiles. another company that took over where DOW tried to get into the market is RGS. RGS has ‘partnered’ with DOW on what they call the RGS POWERHOUSE 3.0 solar PV shingle.

The problem with direct nail down solar PV systems is the PTC rating of the solar PV product is affected by the lack of air flow to the underside of the tiles. When solar PV panels are mounted on a roof, there is usually at least a 2″ to 3″ air gap under the panels. The ‘new’ bifacial solar PV panels may be much cheaper, easier to install, maintain, troubleshoot, than a “tile system” BIPV nail down system. Overall many utilities are trying their best to dilute the value of a solar PV installation on one’s home. Right now there are developers, like Mandalay Homes building solar PV and energy storage into homes. The solar PV on the roof is nominal, something like 2kWp and the ESS is a 10kWh unit doing most of the energy arbitration and control of how the energy is used.

Have many roofs been installed in the UK? I am building a new property and I want to know if the cost is worth it.

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