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Tesla in Australia 2018/2019 – Facts & Figures

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Tesla have announced their Q2 earnings which notes that they have a ‘crazy’ growth outlook despite cell shortage and a slow deployment of their solar roof. Tesla in Australia is still very far behind the USA, but what can we expect the future to bring?

Tesla in Australia – 2018/19

What can Australians expect from Tesla over the next financial year? We’ve had an agonisingly slow rollout down under and there are many people waiting to see how long it takes for the solar roof to make its way out here.

With the cell shortage that has crippled availability of the Tesla Powerwall 2 in Australia, is it worth waiting for the Powerwall 3 instead? There hasn’t been any announcement yet so it really depends on your personal situation. 

The Tesla Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York is in working on speeding up production of the Solar Roof. They hope to produce 1 GW of solar products at the site annually beginning in 2019, and Tesla has said that it could even reach 2 GW/year down the track. The Gigafactory produces standard solar panels, along with the Solar Roof.

So if you have a bit of patience and are happy to wait until 2019, it’s fine to wait. Solar batteries still have a bit of a ways to go before they are a no-brainer for people to install, let alone the solar roof. But in the meantime, there are certainly solar roof alternatives like the Tractile solar roof tile or the Sonnen/Bristile partnership which they’ve called ‘Solartile‘. Have you got any questions or any experience with any of these solar shingles? Please let us know in the comments. 

Where is the Tesla Solar Roof?

Tesla in Australia - Solar Roof via @Toblerhaus on Twitter
Tesla in Australia – Tesla Solar Roof 2018 Installation (California) (source: @Toblerhaus on Twitter)

We’ve written about the Tesla Solar Roof before – and we’ve also written about its place in the Australian ecosystem, given that they’re rare as hen’s teeth in America, let alone over here. According to PV Magazine USA, it’s probable that the Tesla Solar Roof will not help their bottom line (Energy Generation and Division Revenues) until halfway through 2019 at the earliest. The reasons for this are for safety and the time lag it’s taking to get all their ducks in a row.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk clarified:

“It takes a while to confirm that the Solar Roof is going to last for 30 years and all the details work out, and we’re working with first responders to make sure it’s safe in the event of a fire and that kind of thing. So it’s quite a long validation program for a roof which has got to last for 30, 40, 50 years, but we also expect to ramp that up next year at our Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo. That’s going to be super exciting.”

According to Musk ‘several hundred’ Solar Roofs have been deployed, are being installed or scheduled for install, and international expansion (i.e. Australia!) is slowly rolling out.

PV Magazine have also written about some of the first solar roof installations in the USA – please click here to read some more about them.

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Tesla Powerwall in 2018 – Availability in Australia.

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What can we expect from the Tesla Powerwall in 2018? Elon Musk’s company have released their Q4 report from last year, and it also has a lot of interesting information about the direction they’re planning on taking things in 2018. It looks like the days of the severely limited supply of the Powerwall may be coming to an end. 

Tesla Energy Display - Tesla Powerwall in 2018
Tesla Energy Display – Tesla Powerwall in 2018 (source: Tesla.com)

Tesla Powerwall in 2018 – Residential Energy Storage

The Tesla Powerwall 2 has been out in Australia for almost a year now – the problem is that they have been hard to come by and Tesla have had a very difficult time meeting demand for their energy storage products (we’re not even going to delve into the Model 3 fiasco…)

“2018 will see major growth in Tesla energy storage deployments, as the production ramp of our storage products is just as steep as with Model 3,” Tesla said. “This year, we aim to deploy at least three times the storage capacity we deployed in 2017.”

They went on to elaborate on the reason Powerwalls were so difficult to source last year:

“We also deployed 87 MW of energy generation systems in Q4,
which is 20% less than Q3 2017. Solar MW deployed declined as
volumes continue to be impacted by our decision to close certain
sales channels earlier this year and to focus on projects with better
margins. In addition, solar deployments were affected by the short
supply of Powerwalls for customers who wanted solar plus
Powerwall in their house. While volumes may continue to be
impacted by these factors over the near-term, we expect growth to
resume later this year. “

This begs the question – with so many issues scaling up their energy storage how will this impact the Powerwall 3 release date announcement?

Tesla Powerpack in 2018 – Commercial Energy Storage

After the unparalleled success of the Tesla battery in South Australia, it’s unsurprising to see that they’re going to have a strong focus on commercial solar storage. 

 “Due to the success of this project, we’re seeing an increase in demand for Powerpack, our commercial energy storage product. With more electric utilities and governments around the world recognizing the reliability, environmental, and economic benefits of this product, it’s clear that there is a huge opportunity for us in large scale energy storage” their Q4 statement read. 
 
It’ll be interesting to see exactly what applications we’ll see the Powerpack being used in, both in Australia and worldwide. 

Tesla Solar Roof 2018 Update

According to the report, initial production at the Gigafactory 2 started in Q4 and Tesla are “deliberately ramping production at a gradual pace”. When “fully scaled”, the Buffalo, NY based Gigafactory 2 will be able to produce enough solar cells to add more than 150,000 new residential solar installations every year. 

If you want to learn more about the Tesla, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2017 Financial Results Q&A conference call click here to visit their site or you can find the PDF of the update letter here – Tesla Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2017 Update

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Tesla Solar Roof Australia Release Date and Cost

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Exciting news from Tesla and Elon Musk last week as he announced that the Tesla Solar Roof Australia preorder is now available: they’ll be available in ‘almost any country’ and deployment will be this year in the US and 2018 for overseas countries.

Tesla Solar Roof Australia

Tesla Solar Roof Australia Release Date

The tiles were announced last October and we reported on a tweet from Musk last month saying preorders were coming soon – and last week Tesla finally announced they have started production on two of their four initial designs. A smooth glass tile and a textured glass tile are available for preorder right now and will be released in Australia in 2018. The website states that the third and fourth designs, ‘tuscan’ and ‘slate’ will be available ‘early 2018’. This probably refers to the commencement of production, so it might be Q3 or Q4 2018 when these are shipped.

Australians can place a fully refundable $1,310 (AUD) deposit via the Tesla website and, although we’ll have to wait until next year for the tiles to ship, excitement is growing and many local retailers are clamouring for install rights to the panels.

Tesla Solar Roof Warranty

The roof is also extremely durable – take a look at a video post from Elon Musk’s Instagram account where Tesla were doing some hail tests on the solar roof vs conventional roofing tiles. The tiles, whilst being half the weight of their competitors, were measured as being three times stronger:

05.03.19 EDIT: Elon has taken the video off Instagram. 

As such, they have a novel idea towards warranty for the tiles – the lifetime of your home or ‘infinity’ – whichever comes first. They also have 30 year power and weatherization (Weatherization means that there will be no water leaks or other weather intrusions during the warranty period that result from installation) warranties in the US. As warranties are generally region specific we will have to wait to see how this changes for the Australian market.

Tesla Solar Roof in 2019

Tesla plans to ramp up the production of the solar roof with “significantly improved manufacturing capabilities during 2019”. They are facing myriad challenges this year so it’ll be fascinating to see how the company traverses these obstacles. Watch this space! 

Tesla ‘Active’ and ‘Non Active’ Solar Panels

The panels come in two flavours – ‘active’ – which means they work as solar panels, and ‘non’ active – just ‘normal’ roof tiles. As there are a number of factors such as cost, sunlight and energy requirements, you’ll be able to choose how many of each you want, keeping in mind that this is a full roof solution, not just adding solar panels to the top of an existing roof. According to Tesla, for a normal home, around 35% of the tiles will be solar.

Tesla Solar Roof Australia Price

As reported, you can place a $1,310 AUD refundable deposit on the website today. 

With regards to the price: “The typical homeowner can expect to pay $US21.85 (~$A29.50 as per today’s exchange rate) per square foot for Solar Roof, and benefit from a beautiful new roof that also increases the value of their home,” a blog post on Tesla’s Solar Roof Website stated. This is assuming 35% coverage of active (solar) panels.

Based on the pricing Tesla have released, if you have a 120 square metre roof (1291.67 square feet) – you can expect to pay around $38,340 AUD for a ‘normal’ Tesla roof install.

These solar roofs are built to complement and integrate with the Tesla Powerwall 2 and we’ll be very interested to see what some of the cost savings are after they’ve been installed and the numbers crunched. Watch this space as we’ll update as soon as any more information is available! You can also sign up for updates from Tesla by clicking here.

Tesla Solar Roof Price Estimate

Enter your roof size below in square metres and get a price estimate.


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