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Tesla's "solar roof" Event - Hosted at Universal Studios

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I assume the purpose is to make a dedicated Tesla charging appliance? For example, the solar panel will charge the PowerWall battery, which can be used to leverage TDOU or to simply recharge the Tesla directly, without dealing with the grid-tie aspects. Does anyone know what the event was about?
 
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The big question from me is this: what parts of the country will be able to buy it?

That question is why I didn't really give a poop about SolarCity in the past. Much like "compliance car" EVs, SolarCity has so far been a "compliance solar" company. I hope that is changing with the merger.

I meant for that to be a stinging insult for SolarCity. Sorry if it didn't come across as such. :p
 
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There is also a new charger being revealed. My guesses...

1) it's a home charger, not a new kind of commercial-grade deal or Supercharger

2) it's integrated into the Powerwall case; so instead of that silver lump, all you see is the cable going into the Powerwall. It is an option that can be added to the Powerwall when configuring. (not everyone will need it)

3) no-one likes 92% x 92% which might be the electrical efficiency of their wall inverter taking the DC in the batteries and turning it into AC, plus the AC charger inside the car turning it back into DC; and since the painstakingly-accumulated kWh inside the Powerwall are valuable, Tesla will make an attempt at DC charging directly out of this Powerwall, which will be lauded for its efficiency and speed. (it will be faster to charge than the 19.2kW AC charging we have now)

4) this may also mark the debut of Tesla's new inverter. Solar City have been installing inverters from SolarEdge up 'til now, but I've read a few times that Tesla will want to have a go at it, since arguably they have some experience with inverters! And they like to do things vertically...

5) as for the snake charger... I think that is a long shot. But I'd be delighted to be wrong.
 
My guess is Universal Studios is the venue because Tesla has installed the new integrated solar roof product on a backlot "house" so Elon can demo it. Also, sunset will be at 6:03 pm so Elon can demo "house" powered by Powerwall 2.0 at 7 pm TT "Tesla Time".

If this is all going to be truly "integrated", then it should also include a networked thermostat. The smart house knows the alarm system is set to "away" mode so it's empty when the Tesla drives itself away. The car knows when the family is expected to arrive home based on the Nav system. It would be nice and save energy if the HVAC was automatically controlled so the house temperature will be as desired when the Tesla (and family) arrive home.

I wonder if we will see a home version of the automatic "snake" charger cable, or if it's cost-prohibitive for home use?
 
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I'll throw in my predictions.

What I am pretty sure they will have:

1) Discussion / presentation of new solar panel solution (most likely a solar shingle type product).

What they might have:

2) Discussion / presentation of updated Powerwall with better stats, maybe an integrated inverter, and maybe slightly higher capacity. Direct charging of a Tesla car off of it for efficiency is a neat idea, but I would bet against it. Reason being, most people will probably only have 1 Powerwall, and it will probably be less than 10 kWh, and high efficiency charging for only 10% of the automotive battery capacity along with needing the Powerwall to be co-located with the parking spot probably wasn't initially worth the trouble for them to develop in the near term.

3) Discussion of updated Powerpack and maybe a gloss over of in progress Powerpack projects.

What I wish they would have, but probably wont:

4) A discussion of how and where the products will be sold, installed, and serviced.

5) Discussion of durability and warranty plans for the solar solution.

6) Assuming they go the solar shingle route, a discussion/overview of what roofing material is used for the rest of the roof where the solar is not installed (north facing roof, and possibly other shaded or low sun areas).

While I haven't been a huge fan of the solar shingle idea, I do give it credit for having the potential advantage of utilizing the entire roof area without the needed set backs that a traditional rooftop solar system requires.
 
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Today's earnings report describes it as an "integrated solar roof with next-generation energy storage and EV charging."

Going from 92% to 93% efficiency wouldn't exactly be called next-generation.

I'm a bit more optimistic about DC charging.

Note - the conference call is in 20 minutes so we will probably learn more there :)
 
6) Assuming they go the solar shingle route, a discussion/overview of what roofing material is used for the rest of the roof where the solar is not installed (north facing roof, and possibly other shaded or low sun areas).

It looks like a metal roof replacement. If true, the non solar pieces are just metal roof colored to match the solar sections.

New upscale housing developments would be a good target market for this sort of product. The U.S. alone adds about a million new homes each year.