Tesla to unveil solar roof, enhanced Powerwall in Los Angeles

  •  Tesla to unveil solar roof, enhanced Powerwall in Los Angeles

  •  Shareholders set to vote Nov. 17 on SolarCity acquisition

Elon Musk will take the stage Friday evening at Universal Studios in Los Angeles to unveil a “solar roof,” and to boost his case for Tesla Motors Inc.’s planned acquisition of SolarCity Corp.

Like many of his innovative concepts - from electric cars to reusable rockets - this path is littered with failures. Musk’s long-term vision of a clean-energy society with smart solar homes has proven appealing to investors and his many fans. But figuring out the actual nuts and bolts of making a new rooftop power system economically viable will be a challenge.

Designers have been reaching for an elegant and simple solar-powered roofing material for more than a decade, and none have been practical because of higher costs and lower power output than traditional photovoltaic panels, said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Zurich.

“It’s an architectural gimmick,” Chase said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve have seen colorful roof tiles and ‘building-integrated PV’ for sale at exhibitions for years, from Shanghai to San Francisco. For it to work, it has to knock-off system costs.”

Musk, who takes pride in aesthetics, is taking on the design of the solar panel itself - a product widely seen as a commodity without little differentiation. Tesla is expected to unveil what may best be described as a solar shingle.

Solar Roof

“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,” Musk said in a June call with investors after the proposal to acquire SolarCity was first announced.

The concept isn’t new. Dow Chemical Co. in June abandoned a five-year effort to build a market for its Powerhouse solar shingles. And Energy Conversion Devices Inc., whose Uni-Solar unit produced flexible sheets of solar for rooftops, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Those companies both used different photovoltaic technologies than the more common polysilicon product that SolarCity is developing with its Silevo technology. And Musk was promising more than just a solar shingle when in August he described their product as “not a thing on a roof, it is the roof.”

Panel Factory

Tesla is teaming up with Panasonic Corp., a tech powerhouse and his main battery supplier, as SolarCity ramps up production at a solar factory in Buffalo, New York, next year.

“In order to have a beautiful solar roof product, we’ve got to be able to iterate rapidly and have them made exactly the way we want them so that they have very high efficiency cells at the lowest cost,” Musk said during Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call.

The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that more than 1.1 million residential solar systems were in operation in the U.S. at the end of the second quarter. But as early markets like California become saturated, customer acquisition costs rise. Tesla is seeking to pair SolarCity’s network of installers with its formidable brand and retail footprint to give customers one-stop shopping for their clean energy needs.

It’s not just for electric car owners who want to drive on sunshine. As more renewable energy comes onto the nation’s aging electric grids, the need to provide reliable power grows. Batteries can be used to store electricity during peak production times, and then dispense it later when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

Tesla has sold its home battery, known as the Powerwall, to die-hard customers who want the trifecta: a Tesla car in the driveway, solar panels on the roof and a battery to optimize both. The company also offers Powerpack systems to commercial and utility customers and has deployed almost 300 megawatt hours in 18 countries to date, according to a blog post Thursday.

Friday’s event is part of concerted effort to make the case for the SolarCity acquisition. More details, including financial information, will be revealed Nov. 1, when when the company has said it plans to “create a clear picture of how a combined Tesla and SolarCity will make solar and storage as compelling as electric vehicles.” Shareholders are to vote on the proposed merger November 17.