Tesla's 10-K breaks Energy Gen & Storage out as its own segment. Megapack (commercial batteries) is doing the heavy lifting there — Solar Roof was always a small piece of an already small segment by revenue
Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
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Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest thing that could be done to reduce costs at this point is to make the systems sufficiently self contained (electrically) that the utility is comfortable taking just plugging them in. Cut the licensed electricians and the municipalities out. Make it a purely utility thing. For small (i.e. residential) installation these parties taking their pounds of flesh represents a double digit percentage of system cos…
Many small solar installations are exactly that. Hang a solar panel over your balcony railing, and plug it into the socket. Larger installations, of course, will never work that way, simply because they generate too much current for your standard wall plug to handle.
I meant plug them in like to the meter socket, not like the super low end apartment balcony stuff. But yeah upsizing that incrementally over time could get you there.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#293Solar panels have become cheap as dirt and the balance of system is majority of the cost. Installing these massive panels on roof requires a lot more skilled labor and time. Its time to incorporate solar into more areas of the building, build fences with vertical panels, mount them on walls, solar car canopy in front of the garage, optimize for fast installation with ease of installation as well as repair. We should…
Have always said community solar programs are the way to do residential solar. In those programs, you pay for and own off-site solar panels, then the energy they produce is credited to your electric bill. They end up installed at commercial locations ideal for solar: often on covered parking, in fields, or on industrial roofs. Easier to repair, they can do larger panels, no issues with your roof line or roof conditio…
Now imagine if we create a separate company that invests in infrastructure and sells energy to willing buyers who don't have to deal with this. We could call it an energy company.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#294Solar panels have become cheap as dirt and the balance of system is majority of the cost. Installing these massive panels on roof requires a lot more skilled labor and time. Its time to incorporate solar into more areas of the building, build fences with vertical panels, mount them on walls, solar car canopy in front of the garage, optimize for fast installation with ease of installation as well as repair. We should…
Have always said community solar programs are the way to do residential solar. In those programs, you pay for and own off-site solar panels, then the energy they produce is credited to your electric bill. They end up installed at commercial locations ideal for solar: often on covered parking, in fields, or on industrial roofs. Easier to repair, they can do larger panels, no issues with your roof line or roof conditio…
I'm a member of one which has worked well: https://www.edinburghsolar.coop/
And a member of a wind farm project (Ripple Energy) which went bankrupt. So like all small investment schemes, I guess you need to keep a close eye on their financials.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest thing that could be done to reduce costs at this point is to make the systems sufficiently self contained (electrically) that the utility is comfortable taking just plugging them in. Cut the licensed electricians and the municipalities out. Make it a purely utility thing. For small (i.e. residential) installation these parties taking their pounds of flesh represents a double digit percentage of system cos…
Many small solar installations are exactly that. Hang a solar panel over your balcony railing, and plug it into the socket. Larger installations, of course, will never work that way, simply because they generate too much current for your standard wall plug to handle.
Those hanging versions are micro units for an apartment. Definitely only offload small amount of load.
All for it but not for simgle family home market.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#296My thoughts are generally in line with the conclusion. The growth in the rooftop solar market has come from right-sized installations that can be put up in a day or two by a small crew. Minimizing crew and paperwork costs is important when quoting solar competitively; plus it reduces the complexity of operations at headquarters. Cheaper installations generally win, especially when the homeowner receives a credit on t…
The biggest thing that could be done to reduce costs at this point is to make the systems sufficiently self contained (electrically) that the utility is comfortable taking just plugging them in. Cut the licensed electricians and the municipalities out. Make it a purely utility thing. For small (i.e. residential) installation these parties taking their pounds of flesh represents a double digit percentage of system cos…
Oh its wild. Ive been looking at getting solar for about 8 years now. 30k install for 10kw system. Arrays are 10k or less of the total install.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rooftop solar should be more heavily incentivized. From a disaster situation/civil defense perspective, it provides offgrid durability to communities, and it could be life or death in cold waves or heat waves. For all the utility companies complaining about EV and alt energy infrastructure adaptation... well, fine, then let consumer PV do a large part of the work. Oh wait, did someone say consumer choice? The utility…
> it provides offgrid durability to communities This needs a small asterisk that many systems are deliberately not "islanding" capable. Mine isn't, but in the ten years I've had my panels I've only ever had a couple of power cuts, one of which was at night.
Ive seen Battery + islanding sold as a deal sweetener with fed funding part of it. If you live in a grid stable place its kind of expensive for what it is… and no arbitrage wont make the money back in 99% of the places
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#298Why is this elektrek website still gets quoted? It is a very very biased website. I would dismiss any “opinions” or articles they post.
> Elon Musk unveiled the product in 2016 with the promise of beautiful solar tiles that would replace your entire roof — and he set a target of 1,000 new Solar Roofs per week by the end of 2019. Nearly a decade later, Tesla has installed roughly 3,000 Solar Roof systems total, stopped reporting deployment numbers, and is now quietly pivoting to conventional solar panels.
Which source would you prefer? Frankly, really only Tesla-obsessive websites are going to be talking about this at all; for any normal business news outlet, something which has sold 3,000 units in ten years isn't worth thinking about at all.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also representative of Tesla’s stagnation as a company. They essentially have not made a new product since the Model Y came out. No, the Cybertruck doesn’t count, I don’t think we can even consider that a product brought to completion in terms of being an automobile of acceptable market competitiveness. They are struggling in China which is pretty insane considering their head start in that country. Clearly t…
Don't have still highest sales on model 3s?:
Tesla is now out of the top 10 list for EV sales in China as a brand.
The Model 3 is not one of the top 5 selling EVs in Europe. Everything in the top 3 has a hatch. Sedans are more popular in the American market but they’re also a dying segment compared to SUVs, while Europe always preferred vehicles with hatchbacks for space efficiency and practicality.
Volkswagen Group EVs outsell Tesla in Europe. The Skoda Elroq and VW ID.4 together (same platform) outsell the Model Y.
My next prediction is that the Rivian R2 steals about 30% of Model Y sales in the US. It’s priced similarly and it’s a way better vehicle according to early reviews and impressions, and it fits the boxy American SUV off-road aesthetic far better.
Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also representative of Tesla’s stagnation as a company. They essentially have not made a new product since the Model Y came out. No, the Cybertruck doesn’t count, I don’t think we can even consider that a product brought to completion in terms of being an automobile of acceptable market competitiveness. They are struggling in China which is pretty insane considering their head start in that country. Clearly t…
I think the pattern is less "Tesla can't invent anymore" and more that the company seems much worse at turning ambitious concepts into mature, supported products
I think it’s both, but also they don’t even need ambitious concepts. They just need to make vehicles that compete in popular segments and become a proper full range automaker.
Tesla has no 3-row SUV/family vehicle, no subcompact SUV (Kia EV3), no city subcompact car (Renault 5), and no commercial vehicles.