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Remember the solar shingles at the SolarCity acquisition presentation? Non-functional aspirational mock-ups to squeeze through a deal to bail out family.
by cma 6y ago
Remember the solar shingles at the SolarCity acquisition presentation? Non-functional aspirational mock-ups to squeeze through a deal to bail out family.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- wuickvomment 6y agoI worked at solar city for a couple of months last year. The solar shingles are bought from as panels from China, disassembled and then put together anew. I was personally in charge of testing each shingle worked so I know they take solar power and convert it. A lot of the shingles would crack (we had boxes full of junk ones) but overall I think they are manufacturing a real product (even if it’s just a snazzy upgrade of Chinese panels)
- zwily 6y agoAnd Tesla is actually selling those solar shingles today. Good example.
- itsoktocry 6y agoNo they are not. Show us where they sell those slate or terracotta solar tiles they demonstrated. They are sourcing pure black tiles from China, that anyone can buy. That's it.
- DarmokJalad1701 6y agoWhy do you want an older prototype when there is something in production right now with much better specs and pricing? They have obviously iterated on the product and is now on version 3. > They are sourcing pure black tiles from China, that anyone can buy. Wait, there's someone else on the market selling solar roof tiles in the US with a 30 year warranty and rated to survive hits from 1.75" diameter hail and 166 mph winds? This is the first time I am hearing of it! Surely if it is all just bought from an upstream supplier surely someone else can also make bank buying it in bulk and reselling it undercutting Tesla. I would be interested to see a link to this supplier/installer. Thanks.
- cma 6y agoI think he is referring to this, they seem to come from Changzhou, where Tesla has no plant: https://l0dl1j3lc42iebd82042pgl2-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/roof-tile-label-1200x900.jpg https://l0dl1j3lc42iebd82042pgl2-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-... https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/01/29/does-tesla-make-solar-glass-roof-tile-in-its-buffalo-factory-or-in-china/ https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/01/29/does-tesla-make-solar... Maybe you can't buy them elsewhere in the US because Tesla has an exclusive distributorship deal. That's very different than what was presented during the solar city acquisition, and billion in subsidies for the New York plant... You can also buy the Boring Company's state of the art brick machine invention on Ali Baba. The cyber quad was a Yamaha four wheeler with some steel panels and I believe a motor setup from someone else's electric bike.
- DarmokJalad1701 6y agoYou can literally buy a Solar Roof right now and they are hiring installers around the country. Their solar roof sales tripled in the last quarter compared to the quarter prior to that. I suppose all those home-owners are perfectly happy paying $32k+ for "non-functional aspirational mock-ups".
- cma 6y agoThey had to grow the shingles to near panel size.