Tesla Solar Roof: the complete review

While Tesla is most famous for its electric vehicles (EVs), the company’s future lies in total clean energy integration – a one-step carbon reduction process that involves pairing solar panels with your Tesla EV. For home owners who want the benefits of solar without the “look” of solar, the Tesla Solar Roof provides an enticing alternative: but is this luxury roof the right option for you? 

There’s a lot in here, and we’ll try to speak to every aspect of the solar roof. Skip ahead to any of the sections below:

• What are solar shingles?
• Latest news on the solar roof
• Solar roof key events timeline
• Solar roof specifications
• Cost estimates
• Should you wait for the Tesla Solar Roof?
• Tesla’s competitors

What are solar shingles?

Solar shingles are essentially small solar panels that are designed to look and act like shingles made from traditional materials.They are made from photovoltaic materials like silicon and are able to generate electricity while blending in with your roof. 

The Tesla Solar Roof: what you need to know

The Tesla Solar Roof is a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) product that takes the functionality of solar panels and integrates it into roof shingles. A home with Tesla solar roof tiles installed would have a protective and complete roof with the capacity to generate solar energy. By installing the solar roof, you don’t have to install solar panels to generate electricity, which some property owners find visually unappealing. 

Some solar industry stakeholders believe that solar needs to be rebranded as an aesthetic and technical improvement that can be a part of a home renovation rather than a hefty module affixed to your rooftop. That sentiment was emphasized in Elon Musk’s October 2016 launch of Tesla’s first roofing product. With the solar roof, the company aims to bring solar further into the mainstream by removing any sort of aesthetic concerns that homeowners may have. 

“I think there’s quite a radical difference between having solar panels on your roof that actually make your house look better versus ones that do not, I think it’s going to be a night-and-day difference,” said Musk in a statement before the official launch of Tesla’s first solar roof. Two months later, he unveiled the solar roof using a crowded, suburban event in California to demonstrate that his panel design was so seamlessly integrated that the entire audience of press needed to be altered to its presence on the house in front of them. 

What’s the latest news on the Tesla Solar Roof tiles?

Tesla has now installed solar roof tiles across the country, though the exact number of installations is unclear. The product has been gaining popularity among some consumers, leading to long installation wait times for customers who sign contracts. In April 2021, many of these customers were shocked when they received emails from Tesla quoting higher costs than their contract prices. The lack of explanation and transparency caused confusion and frustration among consumers, especially if they could no longer afford the hefty price tag. 

During Tesla’s quarterly earnings call in April 2021, Elon Musk affirmed that demand “remains strong” for the Tesla Solar Roof, despite the price increases. He did concede that Tesla “basically made some significant mistakes in assessing the difficulty of certain roofs.” Tesla added roof complexity information to its website and a roof complexity disclaimer to its Solar Roof calculator; however, Tesla notes that your roof complexity won’t be determined until after you place an order for a Solar Roof. Tesla divides the complexity into three categories–simple, intermediate, and complex–based on the following criteria:

• Simple: single-level roof, uncrowded mounting planes, few obstructions (pipes, chimneys, skylights), low pitch
• Intermediate: multi-level roof (roof sections built on multiple stories of your house), more crowded mounting plane, more obstructions (pipes, chimneys, skylights), higher pitch
• Complex: multi-level roof (roof sections built on multiple stories of your house), heavily crowded mounting plane, many obstructions (pipes, chimneys, skylights), steep pitch

Based on previous reports, the price of a Tesla Solar Roof varies substantially depending on your roof’s complexity. 

Timeline of key Tesla Solar Roof news and announcements

Tesla seems to have a pattern of overpromising and underdelivering in regard to its solar roof. Here’s a breakdown of what the past several years have looked like for the company and its customers. 

• May 2017: Tesla began taking orders for its Tesla solar tiles 
• August 2017: Elon Musk revealed that he and another Tesla executive already had the roof installed on their respective properties. 
• January 2018: The company announced it was ramping up production of the roof product at its Buffalo Gigafactory. Tesla then started initial installations with customers at the top of its waitlist in the California area in mid-March, roughly eight months after its initial estimate. 
• May 2018: Tesla had about 11,000 orders for the solar roof and it was struggling to meet the demand. 
• August 2018: Only 12 solar roofs had been installed in California, the leading state in the country for solar. 
• September 2018: A report was released stating that solar roofs may not be widely installed for a long time. According to CNBC, Musk said they needed more time to work out all the details. “There’s only so much accelerated life testing that you can do on a roof. So before we can deploy it at a large number of houses we need to make sure that it’s that all elements of the roof are going to last for at least three decades,” said Musk in a summer 2018 meeting. The statement lacked both commitment and a clear timeline. 
• November 2018: According to a Bloomberg report, the company began ramping up production, implementing 24/7 operating hours with about 80 employees per shirt for solar roof shingle production alone. Tesla’s head of energy operations, Sanjay Shah, stated that Tesla was gearing up for the solar roof side of its business to see “tremendous growth in 2019.” Musk himself tweeted that the first solar roof deployments would begin around summer 2019. 
• June 2019: Despite continued delays and earnings losses, Musk tweeted that he hoped to manufacture about 1,000 solar roofs per week by the end of 2019. 
• October 2019: Tesla announced the Tesla Solar Roof V3, which featured updates to increase manufacturing and deployment, and reduce prices. 
• Late 2020: Tesla experienced some achievements for its solar roofs throughout the year, almost tripling its installations between quarter one and quarter two. In quarter four, Tesla announced that it had “made great progress growing [its] solar roof deployments,” but didn’t provide date to back up its claim. 
• April 2021: Tesla Solar Roof customers have continued to experience delays and a lack of transparency from Tesla. 
• May 2021: Some customers sued Tesla over unexpected prices hikes. 
• June 2021: electrek confirmed that Tesla’s head of energy operations had left the company after months of rumors.
• October 2021: Tesla expanded solar roof installations to anywhere in the United States.
• November 2021: electrek announced that Solar Roof tiles will be more efficient, have higher capacity, and might be able to be installed over existing roofs.

Solar Roof specifications: what are you getting?

If you’re interested in installing a Tesla Solar Roof, you’re probably wondering what you’re getting of each solar shingle. We’ll explain some of the specifications of the Solar Roof:

Design

Despite previous announcements about multiple design offerings–including tuscan glass tile, slate glass tile, textured glass tile, and smooth glass tile–the Tesla Solar Roof is only currently available in one shingle design. According to Tesla’s website, each shingle has a dimension of 15 inches by 45 inches, is 5 mm thick, and is made of glass, polymers, fiberglass, and silicon. The shingle is designed to resemble a traditional asphalt shingle. 

Output

While all of the shingles look the same, only some actually produce energy. Tesla designs the system to meet your energy needs and will only install as many energy-producing shingles as needed. According to the newest Solar Roof datasheet, each shingle is 71.67 Watts – meaning you’d need about five shingles to get the same output as one 350 Watt panel.

Warranty

Tesla provides 25-year product, weatherization, and module warranties, comparable to leading solar panel brands. The warranty also guarantees that your Solar Roof will be at least 95 percent of its “Rated Peak Power” at five years following installation and that it will decline by no more than 0.5 percent per year for the following 20 years –essentially guaranteeing 85 percent output in year 25. Its inverter has a 12.5-year warranty, which aligns with warranties for other string inverter brands; however, this warranty is lower than warranties for many microinverters, which are often 20 to 25 years. 

How much does the Tesla Solar Roof cost?

With the new complexity categories explained above, it’s a bit difficult to fully estimate the cost of a Tesla Solar Roof. The cost varies significantly depending on whether your roof is “simple” or “complex” and depending on the square footage of your roof. If you have a fairly small – and not too complex – roof that you already need to replace, the price of a Solar Roof will probably be fairly comparable to that of a new asphalt roof installation plus solar panels. However, as you increase the size and/or complexity of your roof, you can expect this number quickly skyrocket. 

For an 8.18 kilowatt (kW) system in California, Tesla estimates that the solar roof will cost $45,300 before incentives if you have a 2,000 square foot roof. However, Tesla estimates that you could spend up to $16,095 (before incentives) more on your Solar Roof, depending on your roof’s complexity. Additionally, if your roof is 2,500 square feet instead of 2,000 square feet, the price jumps to $53,000. You can dig further into these calculations in our comparison of the cost of the solar roof vs. standard panels.

Another factor that impacts the return on investment of your Tesla Solar Roof depends on the solar shingles’ efficiency. Tesla has not released data on the efficiency of its shingles, but EnergySage estimates that typical solar shingle brands range from 14 to 18 percent efficiency, whereas most solar panels are 22 to 23 percent efficient. In an industry where a new record for solar panel efficiency is announced almost every month and the cost of solar is directly tied to how well a solar panel produces electricity, the real numbers on what this glass shingle can achieve is crucial to understanding the solar roof’s actual cost over time.

Should you wait for the Tesla Solar Roof? 

Standard solar panel technologies are typically evaluated based on their performance, durability, and warranties. However, Tesla’s lack of transparency makes it difficult to compare to traditional solar panels. Four years after the initial launch of Tesla’s solar roof, the company still hasn’t revealed the shingles’ efficiency and customers are still experiencing long wait times and surprise price increases. 

If you’re in dire need of a roof upgrade or if you won’t need a roof upgrade for a while, the Tesla Solar Roof may not be worth your long wait. Solar panels are extremely dependable (and we think they look great, too!). However, if you need to upgrade your roof soon (but not immediately) and your roof isn’t too complex or large, you may be a good candidate for the Tesla Solar Roof. Additionally, if you’re set on the look and have the capital to cover the cost, the system may be the best choice for you, though it may be worth your while to compare the Tesla Solar Roof to other solar roof products. 

Who are Tesla’s solar roof competitors?

Though the buzz around Tesla’s illustrious roof product has made it appear like it’s a new concept, it is merely the continued repackaging brilliance that some call the “Musk effect.” Development of solar roof tiles and solar shingles has been evolving for many years, and a number of companies have taken a stab at designing a versatile, subtle rooftop solar medium that could be considered a genuine roofing material rather than a module add-on. Here are some of Tesla’s solar roof competitors that offer similar BIPV products:

• Luma – these solar shingles can be integrated with all roofing material and install similarly to traditional metal roofing. Luma markets its product as the only upgradable solar shingle system and boasts an efficiency of 22.1 percent. 
• Suntegra – this Northeast solar manufacturer is at the forefront of the solar roof product line. The company hails from New York and began offering its two solar roof products just a few months before the announcement of Tesla’s shingles. Suntegra’s solar shingles are designed to be integrated with low-profile roof materials and are about 15.9 to 17.2 percent efficient. Its solar tiles are slightly less efficient at 13.9 to 15.1 percent and are designed to be integrated with standard flat concrete tile roofs. 
• CertainTeed – originally a roofing company, this contractor now offers two solar roof products, with similar integration strategies to Suntegra. Its Apollo II system includes solar shingles to match low-profile roofs, which are about 15.4 percent efficient. CertainTeed’s Apollo Tile II system integrates solar tiles with flat concrete tiles roofs and its tiles are about 16 percent efficient. 

It’s important to note that the solar shingles and tiles offered by these companies do still stand out against other roofing material. None can compete with Tesla in terms of aesthetics or subtlety, but they do offer low-profile BIPV solutions that may alleviate aesthetic concerns for some solar shoppers. 

Frequently asked questions about the Tesla Solar Roof 

While the cost of switching to solar is high, and the news and information surrounding Tesla Solar Roofs can be confusing or nearly obsolete, it’s important to research each product, company, and topic before making a decision. Learn more about the Tesla Solar Roof by reading these commonly asked questions:

Learn how much solar can save you today before you make your decision

Just as Tesla doesn’t make electric vehicles for the masses, Tesla’s solar roof isn’t feasible for every home. In many ways, the company’s solar roof product is similar to its first electric car. If you are an early adopter of newer technologies, don’t care about price, and are prepared to wait for a product with an uncertain manufacturing timeline, then waiting for Tesla’s solar roof could be the right decision for you.

However, there are always risks associated with installing newer technology, especially when Tesla’s solar roof lacks so much transparency. Unlike Tesla’s solar shingles, many of the premium solar panels currently available on the market today are sold by well-known consumer electronics manufacturers (such as Panasonic and LG) that have been producing solar panels for a decade or more.

Additionally, waiting to go solar has its risks, even if you’re interested in the solar roof. The cost of going solar is falling every year, and there are premium solar panels already available today that come with high-efficiency ratings and a sleek black design. If you wait years for the Tesla Solar Roof, you will lose out on years of savings on your electricity bill. You also run the risk of missing out on financial incentives for solar: many state tax credits have already expired and as of now, the federal investment tax credit for solar will be lowered to 22 percent in 2023.

Before you make the decision to wait for the Tesla Solar Roof, use our solar calculator to learn how much you can save today by going solar. If you’re ready to explore the solar options for your home, join the EnergySage Marketplace and get custom quotes from solar installers in your area. You might be surprised by just how much you can save now by installing traditional solar panels on your roof.

Where to buy solar roof tiles

The Tesla Solar Roof can be purchased by contacting the company. If you would like to look at and compare other options, you can visit the EnergySage buyers guide.