It’s official: Tesla is an energy company.
Shareholders voted in favor of Tesla buying SolarCity in a deal worth about $2 billion on Thursday. The core product being made by the “new Tesla” will be its solar roof product, first unveiled by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Oct. 28.
Musk said it’s looking “quite promising” that the solar roof could be cheaper than a normal roof after the shareholder vote on Thursday. He added that the price he is speaking to factors in the cost of labor, as well.
Tesla will offer four types of shingles to match different housing aesthetics in an effort to get homeowners to ditch clunky solar panel add-ons in favor of a beautiful roof. (Although Musk will be quick to add traditional panel installation is still an option if you’re not in the new roof market.)
Here's everything we know about the new solar roof product:
Musk installed its new solar roof offerings on houses on Universal Studio's famous backlot, which creates a suburban environment.
The first product offering Musk showed was its textured glass tiles.
See how it shimmers?
Tesla tucked the solar cells behind the glass...
... And in doing so, you can't really tell the roof has solar cells. That's really the whole crux of Tesla's solar roof vision: to create something that's both aesthetically appealing and efficient.
Musk has been emphasizing the importance of competing on an aesthetic level when it comes to the new solar product offering.
"First of all, I’ve never seen a solar roof that I would actually want… they're weird," Musk said on a conference call Nov. 1. "Every one of them that I’ve seen is worse than a normal roof, without exception. So unless you’re going to beat a roof on aesthetics, why bother?"
Musk seemed most excited about Tesla's French slate tile offering, saying the style is "one of the hardest things to do." This photo gives you a nice look at the solar cell hidden in the tile.
"My roof is a French slate roof, that’s one of the tile styles I wanted to do," Musk said on the conference call. "And we were able to get that. Super hard.”
Musk said at the event that each French slate tile was made using a process known as hydrographic coloring, a process that uses water to apply printed designs.
"The production process itself makes each tile specially unique, it’s sort of a special snowflake tile," Musk said at the solar roof unveiling.
Tesla's hydrographic process is being overseen by a brand new Tesla glass tech division, Musk said on the Nov. 1 conference call. He said the process is "using a lot of techniques from the automotive glass business."
You can read more about Tesla's new glass division here.
Musk said the solar roof could cost less than an actual roof, but still hasn't given specific pricing information. However, SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said on the Nov. 1 call that "we think we can get to that price point of 40 cents a Watt over time in large scale" for the solar cells, which would put it in line with the competition.
"We’ll have the best cell at the lowest price. Just as we have the best battery cell at the lowest price," Musk said on the Nov. 1 call. "We have the highest energy density cell at the lowest price."
Rive said on the call that the solar roof would most likely not fall under a lease or power purchase agreement, but instead as a straightforward loan. "In that case, there is no asset ownership challenge. We would just transfer the ownership to the new homeowner," he said.
Tesla's smooth glass tile is meant to offer "more of a modern look," Musk said at the event.
Unlike the textured glass tile and French slate offering, the smooth glass tile seen here was purposefully designed so you could see the solar cells from certain angles.
"From the vantage point of the street or anywhere near the house it looks completely opaque, but to the sun it’s transparent," Musk said. Although, it's hard to imagine why a feature you can only see from an aerial vantage point would be a huge selling point.
Lastly, Tesla's Tuscan glass tile offering. The roof shown at the event wasn't exclusively made up of Tesla's Tuscan tile. Instead, only the darker tiles seen here come with the solar cells.
Like the smooth glass tile, Musk made a point of showing how looking at the Tuscan tile from different angles will determine whether you can see the solar cell.
Here's a better shot of how the Tuscan glass tiles look once they're installed.
Musk also made a point of showing the durability of Tesla's glass tiles with a weight taste. He also wrote in an Oct. 28 tweet that you can walk on the tiles like you would with regular asphalt shingles.
Musk also tweeted that the solar glass tiles can incorporate heating elements to clear snow while generating energy. He said it wouldn't be energy intensive to melt the snow, but "strongly net positive" in an Oct. 28 tweet.
The solar cells will be produced at a plant in Buffalo, New York.
Tesla and Panasonic have pledged to produce solar cells at the Buffalo manufacturing facility on the condition that the SolarCity merger passes, which it did Thursday.
The Buffalo plant Tesla has chosen was originally meant to be a production facility for SolarCity and is scheduled to begin production at the end of 2017. You can read more about the Buffalo plant here.
Musk's solar roof product is one of several energy products Tesla is offering now that it's merged with SolarCity.
Tesla will offer traditional solar panel installation, the solar roof, and Powerwall 2.0 as a combined company with SolarCity.
Tesla wrote in a blog post Nov. 1 that it expects SolarCity to add more than half a billion dollars in cash to Tesla's balance sheet over the next three years and "to contribute $1+ billion in revenue in 2017."
