Well, it took a little bit longer than expected but Tesla is now taking orders for their solar roofs. There has been a lot of anticipation over this particular Tesla product release, and they were originally shooting for an April release date, but that fell behind a few weeks into May. Still, the buzz is pretty high around the solar roofs especially if they do end up costing the same or even less than traditional roofs of similar design.
Keep in mind, these are not aimed at replacing cheap or budget roofing tiles, but instead are supposed to be a competing product for the high-end roofing tiles. The solar roof will be able to generate electricity for your entire home, which means that not only will you get a new roof, but you’ll be saving money on your electric bill. This means that if the price point is relatively close, it is almost a no brainer to opt for the solar roof option instead due to the fact that it provides you with power for your home.
Tesla has a calculator on their website to help you estimate the cost of a new roof using their solar roof system, which includes the cost of installation and a Tesla PowerWall which is needed to store and distribute the energy generated from the solar tiles.
The solar tiles also come with a 30 year warranty for energy production and weatherization, and so far it looks like the savings in electricity over that time, plus a competitive price to a new roof in general, are shaping up to make this everything Tesla promised and more. Time will tell of course, but given that this is the first generation of this new technology, we should see even more savings in the years to come.