It wasn’t that long ago that Panasonic and Tesla joined together to create solar cells. In the Fall Tesla announced its plans to create a solar roof. It was a project that has been highly anticipated since Tesla acquired SolarCity.
The solar roof project not only took a giant step into energy conservation but created 1,400 new jobs as well at over 500 manufacturing positions. Panasonic also dug deep into their pockets and invested 30 billion yen ($256 million) toward the building of solar panels and solar equipment.
It was just recently that Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Elon Musk announced through Twitter that Tesla will start taking orders for its solar roof tiles as early as next month. The company hasn’t made any further announcement as to the price of the tiles, but earlier in October Tesla released images of what the glass tiles will look like.
The tiles are crafted out of textured glass and have the appearance of regular roof shingles. The real science behind the technology is that the tiles allow sunlight to pass through them from above into a flat solar cell.
These solar cells are produced in Tesla’s Buffalo factory by Panasonic. While Panasonic will put together the solar cells needed to produce the energy, Tesla will craft the roof tiles and all the other needed mechanics that is needed for the roof to be fully functioning.
Yet there’s really no telling just how popular these new solar roof tiles will be. The cost exceeds at least 20 times that of normal roof shingles. Tesla says it already has a wait list of people who have heard of the idea and have expressed interest in getting their own solar roof. In November, Musk noted that it would not only cost less to install a solar roof as opposed to a normal roof, but they will drastically cut the energy bill.
