Solar roofs Elon Musk. Solar roofs won't save Elon Musk's business

According to the company, the average price for such a roof in the United States will be $65 per square meter. That is, it would cost $50,000 to cover the average home, but Tesla calculates that this will save $64,000 over the next 30 years.

“Although the cost of our solar tiles is higher, the difference is offset by the cost of the energy that the tiles generate,” writes Tesla representatives in their blog.

Of the four types of panels that Tesla announced, only two are currently available for pre-order - smooth and textured. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the Tuscan and French slate varieties will go on sale in about six months. Musk also revealed that Tesla's solar roof will be available in almost every country. Deliveries to the US will begin this year, to other countries - in a couple of years. Russia has not been included in the list yet.

How does it work?

Tesla's Solar Roof connects to a Powerwall 2 battery capable of storing 14kWh of energy and delivering 5kW continuous power consumption with a peak demand of 7kW. The tiles themselves are made from tempered glass to protect panels from damage. They have a special texture so that they can be mistaken for ordinary roofing tiles and not draw too much attention, writes the Verge.

Tesla claims that its tiles don't degrade over time like asphalt or concrete do. “A solar roof is the most durable and will come with a warranty for the lifetime of your home,” the company said in a statement.

To confirm the durability and strength of the solar roof, Musk posted a slow-motion video on Instagram of a huge ice ball hitting the roof. Looks impressive.

Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, introduced another revolutionary product that every family can use in a year. According to the portal politicallore.com, Elon Musk has created an innovative energy-saving product - a solar panel in the form of tiles. The roof decoration element has become both functional and environmentally friendly.

Elon Musk introduced roof tiles in the form solar panels-modules, such a combination of utility and beauty will help save on electricity. Previously, Musk and his companies (Tesla and SolarCity) have already developed PowerWall - solar panels for the home that can generate electricity around the clock, providing energy to the house. In the future, Musk intends to help people switch households from traditional energy sources to solar panels. He stated thus:

"Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy."

Elon Musk and the Infinite Energy Project

Elon Musk has long been working on a line of inventions aimed at saving and reducing the cost of energy. The billionaire has developed an electric car, created PowerWall batteries (a lithium-ion battery whose solar panel produces excess energy during the day that can be used at night), and now it's the turn of another kind of solar battery - in the form of roof tiles. Such energy sources reduce the need for recharge from the centralized power grid, reducing the cost of energy.

Elon Musk is the largest shareholder in Tesla and SolarCity, the latter run by his cousins. Analysts note that SolarCity is unprofitable, so Musk should consider merging it with Tesla. The voting of the board of directors is scheduled for November 17.

According to Elon Musk, solar tiles will not go on sale until next summer, provided that the two companies of the billionaire successfully merge into one. “Having two separate companies slows down product launches, pushing up the price. For shareholders it is not the best option" Musk explained.

The cost of a roof covered with innovative tiles will be lower than usual. After all, the owner of the house remains in the daily plus - there is a constant accumulation of energy for the needs of the house and even an electric car. The view of the eccentric Elon Musk is directed to the future, so the inventor does not intend to stop there: the sooner a new energy-saving product goes on sale, the sooner shareholders and end users will appreciate the benefits and benefits of innovation.

Model X: curiosity at speed

Co-founder and CEO Tesla Elon Musk personally presented the novelty to experts and journalists. Specifications Model X turned out to be similar to the characteristics of the company's bestseller, the Model S electric sedan. Up to 100 km / h, the crossover will accelerate in about 3.2-4.8 seconds. And with the P90D engine, there is a “curious” mode, in which the speed of movement becomes so high, “it’s even somehow wrong,” Musk noted. The power reserve is approximately 400 km.

Crossover for the whole family

The Tesla crossover is great for large families: even when fully loaded - the car can accommodate up to 7 people - luggage space remains under the hood, where the internal combustion engine is located in "non-electric vehicles". The company also hopes to expand the audience through female customers, who are especially active in the US market in the SUV segment.

Start without mask

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by fellow engineers Martin Eberhard (pictured) and Mark Tappening. They named the company after Nikola Tesla, a famous inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering. Elon Musk joined the project only in 2004, after the sale of the PayPal payment system to the eBay online auction.

First after Ford

In 2010, Tesla went public and became the first car company since Ford to go public. In May of the same year, the company received a $50 million investment from Toyota and acquired with this money a closed NUMMI plant in California, previously owned by a Japanese corporation. Tesla's latest investors include Google Corporation and leading Silicon Valley investment funds. Collectively, the company has raised $5.3 billion since 2010, with each funding round causing a buzz. Tesla last raised $650 million in August 2015, prioritizing spending on building a unique Gigafactory battery plant in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Waiting for profit

Tesla has not yet become profitable - in early 2015, Musk said that the company will achieve this goal in 2020, when it reaches annual sales of 500,000 electric vehicles. Other disclosed financial indicators look great today: this year, Tesla should reach $ 5.5 billion in revenue, which is 54% more than in 2014. The company's shares have grown in price 15 times since the IPO in 2010, the capitalization recently broke through the $33 billion mark.

Scandinavian boom

Following the American market, Tesla is rapidly gaining European consumers. In August, the company reported a two-fold increase in sales in the Old World in the first half of 2015. The real boom is taking place in Norway, where generous government subsidies have tripled the fleet of electric vehicles to 50,000 units in two years. True, in 2018, subsidies will be abolished. What happens after can be understood by the example of neighboring Denmark: with the elimination of "green" benefits, the price of the Model S here immediately skyrocketed by 180%.

Primacy of charging

The first question that customers ask when they come to Tesla stores is: “Where will I fill up?” - said the company's vice president of communications, Ricardo Reyes. In the United States, this problem has been virtually completely solved: a network of special charging stations covers the entire country.

Brand diversification

Like other major automakers, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari, Tesla launches the brand's fashion lineThe Tesla Design Collection, which includes, for example, a $300 handbag, $100 leather driving gloves, a $40 iPhone case, and other clothing and accessories.

Visibility of unprofitability

Although skeptics regularly accuse Tesla of an inefficient business model, the company's unprofitability is more likely a consequence of growing pains: at the current stage of development most of proceeds are reinvested in development and production. In the future, the manufacturer should also enter the mass market: after the Model S and X, if there is no force majeure, the budget model Model 3 worth $35,000 will enter the market in 2017.

With a visionary at the head

One of the key success factors for Tesla is the figure of Elon Musk. Company CEO picked up the baton of the world's most disruptive entrepreneur from another iconic CEO— co-founder Steve's Apple Jobs. And Tesla took the crown of the most innovative company in the world according to Forbes.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the release of new products at the SolarCity reporting meeting, which summed up the financial results for the second quarter of 2016. The entrepreneur is on the board of directors of the company, but his interest in this event is explained by the upcoming deal - at the end of July, Tesla made the final decision to acquire SolarCity for $ 2.6 billion. The deal has not yet been concluded, although Tesla shares fell by 10% after the announcement of the merger, and experts criticized Musk's decision.

Startup SolarCity is installing facilities and infrastructure for collecting solar energy. At the meeting, Musk emphasized that the company's next product will not be individual modules that are installed on the roof, but a finished covering - a solar roof. It's probably about the roof. solar panels.

The head of SolarCity, Lyndon Rive, noted that before the end of the year, the startup will release two products. By this time, the deal on the sale of the company will be finalized.

Rive also confirmed that the startup is preparing to release a roof covering. In his opinion, this will open a new market for SolarCity. 5 million new roofs are installed annually in the US. As Rive noted, many people are reluctant to invest in solar panels, as the roof often needs to be replaced or updated. The ready-made proposal is just right for those who are planning renovations, as they will have the opportunity to update the roof and, at the same time, acquire a source of solar energy.

The authors of the SolarCity project, including Elon Musk, have a simple concept. Need to do not energy systems for the roofs of buildings, and construct the roofs themselves from solar panels. For this, roofing tiles were developed in the format of a high-tech building material. Panel samples presented last Friday imitate ceramic tiles, glass, French slate, textured and curved Tuscan tiles.

The solar panels will be manufactured at a 1 GW factory under construction in Buffalo. The SolarCity plant will begin operations in the second quarter of 2017.

They are all opaque when viewed from below or from the side, so you won't know where the roof ends and the solar array begins.

As Musk stated, “this is the roof that has better insulation, than a traditional structure, generates electricity and at the same time costs less than a roof, plus a solar panel.

It is strong enough to withstand a slight blow and the vagaries of the weather, which was demonstrated at the presentation. However, the head of Tesla did not voice the cost of the product and the performance of energy generation.

Elon Musk demonstrated the perfect addition to such a roof: the second-generation Powerwall battery complex from the same Tesla company. It holds 14 kWh of energy, the estimated daily requirement for a household with 4 rooms equipped with typical electrical appliances. If you connect a battery to the panels on the roof and build a house in a sunny region, in theory you get endless source energy.