Tesla’s solar roof is dead. Here’s what went wrong

Nearly a decennary ago, Tesla introduced its star roof, which was fundamentally a mini-power works that happened to look similar high-end shingles, fancy terracotta tiles oregon refined slate slabs. 

Now, the star extortion is dead. Tesla has scrubbed public-facing mentions of the merchandise from its website. TechCrunch has confirmed that the star extortion URL present redirects to its generic star landing leafage connected Tesla’s website, and each of the enactment pages redirect, too. Electrek was archetypal to report connected the product’s disappearance. 

But similar different Tesla initiatives, the conception mightiness person a beingness beyond the company. Two star installers told TechCrunch their institution was inactive offering the star roof, though 1 said availability would beryllium connected the timeline of the project. That suggests Tesla is moving to offload existing inventory. 

Depending connected however afloat that warehouse is, the star extortion mightiness beryllium disposable for immoderate time. Tesla had lofty goals for the product, aiming for 1,000 installations per week, but aft years of refinement and process improvement, the task got to determination betwixt 20 to 40 per week arsenic of 2022.

Tesla’s star extortion ne'er had a agleam future. From the start, it was positioned arsenic a luxury product, and it lone got much costly implicit time. In its selling materials, Tesla compared the star extortion with the outgo of solar, positive extortion replacement. That positioning made the merchandise look attractive, particularly if you truly didn’t similar the looks of regular star panels. But adjacent erstwhile you factored successful replacement, the merchandise could beryllium eye-wateringly expensive. People reported receiving quotes of $200,000 to instal one. 

Even arsenic silicon-based exertion got cheaper implicit time, the star extortion proved an aberration. Regular panels dropped successful terms due to the fact that the satellite makes billions of standardized star cells each twelvemonth and assembles them into mostly standardized panels. The star extortion mightiness person utilized modular cells, but the tiles were unsocial to the system. That meant Tesla had to plan and bargain its ain manufacturing equipment, and erstwhile income didn’t materialize arsenic expected, the per-unit outgo of that instrumentality went up.

Physics wasn’t benignant to the project, either. Anything that’s nether afloat prima vulnerability has to woody with heat, and determination were reports of the star roof’s non-solar parts warping and roof underlayment melting. For Tesla, possibly much troubling were reports of underproduction: the strategy wasn’t making arsenic overmuch energy arsenic Tesla said they would. 

It’s hard to accidental what, exactly, resulted successful the underproduction, but a apt culprit is heat. Like galore physics devices, star panels execute amended erstwhile they’re colder. Voltage tends to diminution by astir fractional a percent for each grade Celsius. Regular star panels header with this by leaving a spread betwixt the panels and the roof, allowing for immoderate airflow to chill things off. Tesla did the aforesaid with the star roof, but the spread was overmuch smaller, which whitethorn person led to precocious temperatures that robbed the cells of immoderate efficiency. 

So present that Tesla is pushing buyers to its accepted star panels, does this spell the extremity of integrated star roofs? 

For now, no. Other companies similar GAF and Merlin Solar are inactive angling for a portion of the market. Plus, it’s apt that a fig of buyers with circumstantial aesthetic tastes volition support companies interested.

Still, Tesla’s determination could woody a stroke to the thought of a star roof. If 1 of the world’s astir invaluable companies can’t marque it work, who can? Maybe that’s an indictment of the full concept. Or possibly it sounds similar a situation to an anxious laminitis consenting to beryllium Elon Musk wrong.