Pennsylvania Solar Roof and Powerwall Canceled

[traxila]

I am in the late stages of construction of a house in PA. The design is for a passive all electric house powered by a Tesla Solar Roof. I contracted for a tremendous system with Tesla in 2020 and pretty much planned for everything based on the Solar Roof.

I had been in communication with Tesla numerous times coordinating with the builder and determining where all the electrical and batteries would be placed. We are now ready for installation and Tesla had submitted for the appropriate permits with the utility (PPL) and the township.

I sent an an email last week to my project adviser asking for an update and explaining that we were ready to go. Time for the roof! They responded: "Upon further review of your project, our team has determined that your home is located in an area we no longer service due to utility difficulty."

I scrambled and begged and pleaded. I offered to take delivery of just the materials and get a Tesla certified installer to finish the job. All I got was no no no. My project advisor was nice and wanted to help me, but in the end, no.

I was referred to a Tesla Certified Installer in the area to re contract. They quoted me a price THREE times what I was contracted with at TESLA. They said they might be able to get to it by the end of this calendar year.

I am at a loss as to how to proceed. I am posting here to see if anyone has any words of advice. I appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

 

[karkrazy]

In your original contract with Tesla, what does it say about changes, cancellations or anything along those lines? Curious to see what it says on paper, as that will form the basis of the go-forward response.

In the meantime, look for other tesla installers? Or go the traditional roof/PV panels route… yeah, not ideal…

 

[traxila]

In your original contract with Tesla, what does it say about changes, cancellations or anything along those lines? Curious to see what it says on paper, as that will form the basis of the go-forward response.

In the meantime, look for other tesla installers? Or go the traditional roof/PV panels route… yeah, not ideal…

Either party could cancel prior to installation.

Only one Tesla certified installer in area, American Home Contractors. Quoted me more than twice the price not including the powers walls. Willing to go with Luma at this point but just cannot find installers in the area.

I get this is a business, but to cancel at this point…. And all the delays and cost overruns we have had until now this takes the cake.

First world problems I guess…

 

[BGbreeder]

Sorry for your problems. Given the cancellation language, it sounds there isn't much to do besides working on Plan B / Plan C. That has to hurt.

Keep us posted on how it works out.

All the best,

BG

 

[kpanda17]

you might also be able to find a freelance Tesla solar expert installer and surround them with laborers
use the parts list from Tesla and find out if you can just buy the parts
could be worth investigating

 

[traxila]

you might also be able to find a freelance Tesla solar expert installer and surround them with laborers
use the parts list from Tesla and find out if you can just buy the parts
could be worth investigating

Tried to buy the supplies. They said no after investigating because I was not a "Tesla affiliated company". Don't know why they could not do that, just drop the supplies on the construction site. Told them I would engage the Tesla certified installer who probably would have charged me as much in labor as Tesla would have for the whole project to install, But no...

 

[nativewolf]

Par for the course with solar roof. This is one of the projects that has just not worked. I tried, same basic results as you.

You won’t like this but this is what you may do. Buy cheap shingles and hope industry innovations come along to enable a similar product in a few years. Use the cost savings to invest in a community solar or just sign a green energy supply contract. Or give up on the roof and invest in a great slate tile roof- you are in PA.

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

I am in the late stages of construction of a house in PA. The design is for a passive all electric house powered by a Tesla Solar Roof. I contracted for a tremendous system with Tesla in 2020 and pretty much planned for everything based on the Solar Roof.

View attachment 947027
I had been in communication with Tesla numerous times coordinating with the builder and determining where all the electrical and batteries would be placed. We are now ready for installation and Tesla had submitted for the appropriate permits with the utility (PPL) and the township.

I sent an an email last week to my project adviser asking for an update and explaining that we were ready to go. Time for the roof! They responded: "Upon further review of your project, our team has determined that your home is located in an area we no longer service due to utility difficulty."

I scrambled and begged and pleaded. I offered to take delivery of just the materials and get a Tesla certified installer to finish the job. All I got was no no no. My project advisor was nice and wanted to help me, but in the end, no.

I was referred to a Tesla Certified Installer in the area to re contract. They quoted me a price THREE times what I was contracted with at TESLA. They said they might be able to get to it by the end of this calendar year.

I am at a loss as to how to proceed. I am posting here to see if anyone has any words of advice. I appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

From what I've read Tesla has sold a minuscule amount of solar roofs and many potential customers have complained on this website that Tesla went to contract for a powerwall and then later said our "algorithm" was bad and quoted a much higher price.
I live in New York and the governor gave them a big ass tax incentive for a factory in Buffalo and from what I've read they import their solar panels and
the employees basically do video labelling or whatever they call it for FSD. So MISTER I don't live off of government money was full of it.
Contact a reputable local solar company and get good high yield panels. And if you have alot of land make a solar farm and connect to house. The local
monster money grabbing cable company recently did that at their corporate headquarters. Also, look into geothermal.

 

[Vines]

GAF has a solar roof product that is available in some markets, but it doesn't have the same aesthetics.

https://www.gaf.energy/timberline-solar/

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

GAF has a solar roof product that is available in some markets, but it doesn't have the same aesthetics.

https://www.gaf.energy/timberline-solar/

Check these guys out Solar Installation Service Offerings | SUNation Energy
They've done hundreds of installs across Long Island. Maybe they can recommend a local installer. And they have those really nice looking black mirror almost
seemless panels

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

Tried to buy the supplies. They said no after investigating because I was not a "Tesla affiliated company". Don't know why they could not do that, just drop the supplies on the construction site. Told them I would engage the Tesla certified installer who probably would have charged me as much in labor as Tesla would have for the whole project to install, But no...

You don't want Tesla panels. Look at these panels Solar Panels
You can also buy panels at home depot. They probably have registered contractors to install.
There are SO MANY solar companies I see as I drive through Nassau/Suffolk. There MUST be alot of solar installers in PA. What town is this house located?
Tesla is nasty with their whole product line. It took my local body shop about 6 months to fill out the multiple paperworks to buy parts. They used to go to local
service center but they got rid of that. So my front bumper was $495 and a couple hundred shipping.

 

[GregBallantyne]

My installation was just completed by American Home Contractors. I can say that they do high quality work, and from what I hear they are far better to deal with than Tesla in a direct install. The performance of my system has exceeded my expectations so far.

With regard to pricing - AHC, as is likely any certified installer, is more $$ than the Tesla quoted pricing. They also don't change the deal on you mid stream. As in abandonment, or price jacking as I've heard many direct installations experienced. They can also respond better to design or scope adjustments along the way. I bit the bullet and did my project, and I've not been disappointed. The Solar installation landscape is experiencing some evolutionary forces right now, and AHC did pretty well at adjusting to challenges along the way. I would recommend them to anyone considering a Solar installation in their service region. They also install other solar products other than Tesla like GIF Timberline Solar shingles. Panels won't work for my situation - I needed to maximize my roof space useage to get the capacity to meet my goals. I believe every available spot an active tile could be placed on it was used.

My project was expensive, but my goals appear to have been well achieved. At this point I am convinced that a Tesla Solar Roof with Powerwalls were certainly my best choice for achieving those goals, and perhaps the only choice that would not have fallen short. It took some effort to make the $$ part work, but was worth it. No disappointments with performance, this system is great. But seeing your overall plan, your project will be quite expensive, it's one Powerall short of being twice mine. I am getting about $40k of tax credits out of mine, spread over a couple years. You gotta have the liability to get the credit of course, so spreading it out helps.

I am just a bit suspicious of the utility difficulty excuse..... wondering about the possibility that the Tesla guys discovering that they quoted the project significantly too low, and looking for a way out..... I've heard of other experiences that sounded like that. One of the reasons they started going to Tesla Certified Installers.

 

[kpanda17]

My installation was just completed by American Home Contractors. I can say that they do high quality work, and from what I hear they are far better to deal with than Tesla in a direct install. The performance of my system has exceeded my expectations so far.

With regard to pricing - AHC, as is likely any certified installer, is more $$ than the Tesla quoted pricing. They also don't change the deal on you mid stream. As in abandonment, or price jacking as I've heard many direct installations experienced. They can also respond better to design or scope adjustments along the way. I bit the bullet and did my project, and I've not been disappointed. The Solar installation landscape is experiencing some evolutionary forces right now, and AHC did pretty well at adjusting to challenges along the way. I would recommend them to anyone considering a Solar installation in their service region. They also install other solar products other than Tesla like GIF Timberline Solar shingles. Panels won't work for my situation - I needed to maximize my roof space useage to get the capacity to meet my goals. I believe every available spot an active tile could be placed on it was used.

My project was expensive, but my goals appear to have been well achieved. At this point I am convinced that a Tesla Solar Roof with Powerwalls were certainly my best choice for achieving those goals, and perhaps the only choice that would not have fallen short. It took some effort to make the $$ part work, but was worth it. No disappointments with performance, this system is great. But seeing your overall plan, your project will be quite expensive, it's one Powerall short of being twice mine. I am getting about $40k of tax credits out of mine, spread over a couple years. You gotta have the liability to get the credit of course, so spreading it out helps.

I am just a bit suspicious of the utility difficulty excuse..... wondering about the possibility that the Tesla guys discovering that they quoted the project significantly too low, and looking for a way out..... I've heard of other experiences that sounded like that. One of the reasons they started going to Tesla Certified Installers.

Greg, can you break out the details? what state, your daily kw need, size of the new panels/17kw?, 3x PWs/33kw?, total cost, rebates/credits, amount you will spread out, break even year, percent use covered by solar, amount using from the grid, anything I missed? Thanks

 

[GregBallantyne]

Greg, can you break out the details? what state, your daily kw need, size of the new panels/17kw?, 3x PWs/33kw?, total cost, rebates/credits, amount you will spread out, break even year, percent use covered by solar, amount using from the grid, anything I missed? Thanks

A lot of this is included in my post - I'm in Maryland, and the solar tile capacity is about 17.13 kw, but I just call it 17kw. 3 PWs. No panels, Tesla Solar Roof. Maybe there is some stuff in my post you might have missed...... but not all in the body of the post.
I don't know my break even year, but it's at least partially likely I won't be around to see it. I did a rough figure and came up with 18.3 years, not sure why. A few assumptions invloved. Break even and payoff didn't significantly figure into my decision to do this. Our annual useage last year was a little over 20,000 kwh.
I made lots of estimates of how it might perform, and spent some time concerned that they were optimistic. My annual generation number was coming out a little under 15000 kwh, while Tesla's design estimate was a bit less than 9000 kwh. I did end up adding nearly 2 kw of tiles to the total capacity though.
We will see, but after 8 days of operation I am very impressed with the performance. I am seeing that generation is trending toward being quite close to my estimates, with indications it could be better.

 

[FurryOne]

Only one Tesla certified installer in area, American Home Contractors. Quoted me more than twice the price not including the powers walls. Willing to go with Luma at this point but just cannot find installers in the area.

All it takes is a look at the complexity of your roof to know why Tesla cancelled. Their original algorithm was base on something like the roof of a ranch house, and suddenly they were roofing McMansions and taking a beating. AHC's quote more likely reflects the actual work they'd need to do with all the angles of your roof. You want a complex design house, you pay for the extra labor required to roof it, that's all.

 

[holeydonut]

I agree with the recommendation to rapidly move to a Plan B. You may also want speak with a real lawyer in your area.

IANAL, but I understand the law does not provide a mechanism to compel a party to perform... so Tesla (or it's contractor) cannot be compelled to complete the original contract. But, where the law does help you is with promissory estoppel. Your reasonable reliance on the original contract has resulted in your suffering some damages (reliance or expectation damages). Keep all your receipts, and maybe have your Plan B solution provider document the premium/price you're paying for a last minute panic-save. If you can quantify your damages, it'll help your claim. But I also agree Tesla's contracts tend to be structured in their favor, so they could possibly disclaim responsibility for a last minute contract-cancellation.

promissory estoppel

www.law.cornell.edu

 

[nativewolf]

Why sue or threaten? It was risk and it was very clear it was not a commitment. My house is a ranch with a wing and a porch and it was crazy expensive. The roof product is not a cost effective product. Save your money and buy a great roof and move on with other more economical green energy ideas.

The idea that litigation is required in something like this is a terrible idea IMO. He won’t get a roof, Tesla wastes money, courts waste time with frivolous crap. It hurts the mission.

If the OP had paid any attention at all to this product they would know it was not on track, actual installs were way over original estimates, etc.

 

[Will792]

It might be blessing in disguise. Solar roof is very much work in progress and success is not guaranteed. Obviously visual appearance is very different for conventional roof with panels installed but there are ways to make it more esthetically pleasing or avoid having panels on front roof planes.

I remember that Tesla stopped accepting new house construction projects a few years ago but cannot recall when.

 

[jgleigh]

Their original algorithm was base on something like the roof of a ranch house, and suddenly they were roofing McMansions and taking a beating.

Which anyone paying attention at Tesla should have realized since the prices went so high. It's a novel idea, but just hasn't worked out as originally envisioned.

 

[GregBallantyne]

It might be blessing in disguise. Solar roof is very much work in progress and success is not guaranteed. Obviously visual appearance is very different for conventional roof with panels installed but there are ways to make it more esthetically pleasing or avoid having panels on front roof planes.

I remember that Tesla stopped accepting new house construction projects a few years ago but cannot recall when.

I think you are a bit out of date. Perhaps a few years. Real owners experiences will point that out quickly. I am not the only one....