Tesla's Solar Roof: A Guide for Skeptics

This is a free version of the Interchange. For more on how to access all our premium content, visit GTM Squared: https://www.greentechmedia.com/squared Back in August, Elon Musk broke into SolarCity's earnings call to make a surprise announcement: Tesla and SolarCity were designing a building-integrated solar product. "It's a solar roof as opposed to a module on a roof," said Musk. Just a few weeks earlier, Tesla went public with its intentions to acquire SolarCity. The solar roof was seen as an example of what the combined companies could create, market and sell. "We don't want to show all of our cards right now, but I think people are going to be really excited about what they see," said Musk. Their cards are now on the table after Musk unveiled the solar roof last Friday. The product was stunning -- but Tesla failed to release any substantive details about cost, performance, financing, or its business model for deploying solar roofs. (Given that very few building-integrated PV companies have actually succeeded, the lack of details was particularly fishy.) In this week's podcast, we dig into all the knowns and unknowns about Musk's mysterious solar roof. Does this represent a radical new business opportunity? Or is it just glitzy PR designed to convince investors of Tesla's plan to buy SolarCity?