Since the news of the fusion between SolarCity and Tesla Motors, some even greater news now show up. At SolarCity’s second quarter financial call last week, Elon Musk announced that the company will launch a revolutionary solar roof.
Now mind you, a solar roof is NOT a solar cell mounted on the roof. For existing buildings, that product is doing well and is going to be supported along with the new one. The solar cell roof is just what is seems to be: a beautiful roof with integrated solar panels, so they won’t ruin the external aspect of your new home.
Rive then confirmed that they are working on a solar roof integrated product and Musk added:
“I think this is really a fundamental part of achieving differentiated product strategy, where you have a beautiful roof. It’s not a thing on the roof. It is the roof.”
The solar roof modules will be made at a large, 1GW facility in Buffalo, NY, and will target a “huge” market of roofs that are nearing their end of life (and new ones, of course). Over 5 million new roofs are installed in the US each year.
After changing money transfers, cars, space exploration, now Elon Musk and his cousin Lyndon Rive are going for the roofing industry – this is not going to get unnoticed, since it involves Tesla and Elon Musk – remember Hyperloop?
This reminds me of an article that we wrote back in 2009 about a company named Dow Chemical. They too wanted to make solar roofs possible through a product called “solar shingles.”
