But Will it Leak? An Interesting Look at Installing a New Tesla Roof

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

California homeowner Kyle Field’s house burned in 2017 and for the rebuild, he knew that he wanted to install Tesla’s Solarglass Roof.

To start the process, Kyle made a $1,000 deposit to reserve the roof and was excited to learn that he had been accepted into the pilot for Tesla’s new home program.  His home became one of the first new-construction homes to receive the Solarglass version 2 roof.

Kyle works for CleanTechnica, a clean energy website that reports news, reviews and analysis related to the clean tech industry, so he was very interested in documenting the entire process from start to finish. He does acknowledge that Tesla’s newer version 3 is larger and easier to manufacture and install.   He and his builder worked directly with Tesla to scope the system. What is unique about the tiles is that Tesla is able to scale the system up or down by the number of photovoltaic tiles used. To scale down, they simply use non-producing glass tiles.

The Tesla project leader for Kyle’s installation worked directly with his builder to coordinate the installation timing and to communicate what their electrical needs were. Because Kyle chose not to have natural gas in the home, he wanted to get as much output from the system as possible. Solar tiles were installed on the north-, south-, east, and west-facing roof planes, not an ideal way to maximize production but for his situation it made sense.

His home has two stories, so the upper roof was installed several weeks ahead of the lower roof. Once the stucco is installed on the house, the Tesla team will return to finish the installation, connect inverters and install the Tesla Powerwalls that store the energy.

While the upper roof was being installed, Kyle got onto the roof to record a video of the installation. He shows up-close footage of the Solarglass tiles with the PV and the ones without as well as shares a look at how the tiles are attached.   

Tesla believes that its Solarglass Roof is cheaper than the cost of a regular roof plus the cost of energy over a span of 25 years. But the question remains – how well will it perform when it comes to protecting the home from the elements?

Get the latest industry news delivered to your inbox each week when you sign up for the RCS Week in Review email newsletter.