At an event on Friday in Los Angeles, Tesla unveiled the long-awaited " new product" The presentation, as usual, was conducted by the head of the company, Elon Musk, and one of his tasks was to demonstrate the advantages of the future merger of SolarCity and Tesla.

“There are three fundamental components that can help solve the problem of global climate change and lead humanity to a sustainable future: renewable sources, energy storage technologies and electric transport,” Musk said.

The main innovation of the company was the “solar” roof (Solar Roof). It is a one-piece roofing system with solar panels integrated into it. Its peculiarity is its external similarity to traditional roofing materials - from the ground it is almost impossible to distinguish it from the roofs of ordinary houses, at the same time, it is absolutely transparent to solar radiation.

For this purpose, several coating options for photovoltaic modules were provided.

Roof imitating slate tiles

In the style of natural clay tiles Tuscany

Glossy glass tiles

Textured Glass Tile

According to Elon Musk, the cost of a Tesla solar roof, taking into account the electricity it generates, will be cheaper than traditional solutions. And there is no doubt about its reliability, since photovoltaic roofing is much stronger than other materials:

The next generation of home batteries was also presented at the presentation. Powerwall 2 consumer drives are different from their predecessors more compact size and increased capacity. Tesla's new batteries hold 14 kWh of energy (previously it was 10 kWh) and are capable of delivering a nominal power of 5 kW, and up to 7 kW at peak loads.

Now it is possible to install the battery both inside the building and outside it (on the street), as well as two mounting options - floor and wall. The manufacturer provides a 10-year warranty on its product, and the price of Powerwall 2 will increase to 5.5 thousand dollars, whereas previously it cost about 3.5 thousand.

"By combining the Powerwall 2 battery, solar energy and electric vehicle, we are creating new style zero-emission living. In just one hour, the sun delivers to Earth such a volume of energy that is capable of meeting the energy needs of our entire planet for an entire year. Your home can harness this free and abundant source of energy through rooftop solar panels, turning sunlight into electricity for direct use or storage in a PowerWall battery,” Tesla says on its website.

The issue of merging Tesla and SolarCity will be discussed by shareholders on November 17. If the merger takes place, the solar roofing will be produced at a factory in Buffalo (New York). The initiator of the deal, estimated at $2.6 billion, is Elon Musk, who is the main shareholder of both companies.

“This is where you see the future of sustainable development. Electric car, battery and solar panels in the form of a roof. The key to success is to make them accessible, beautiful and as integrated as possible,” Musk concluded.

Apparently, the time has come to change the approach. In 2016, SolarCity's net losses exceeded $820 million, while revenue was only $730 million. Losses are growing faster than sales.

In the first quarter of 2017, the company installed panels with a total capacity of 150 MW - 30% less than last year. In California, SolarCity's core market, solar power was growing at such a rapid pace that utility companies were struggling to keep up with changing loads on the grid. This year, the Solar Energy Association projects an increase in panel installations of just 3%. Compare that to growth of 60% in 2015 and 16% last year.

For three years production solar energy in the USA it doubled and reached 56 thousand GWh. It will continue to grow, while the share of the largest producers - SolarCity, Vivint (NYSE: VSLR) and Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN) - will decline. A couple of years ago it accounted for 60% of new orders. Currently, their share has dropped to 40% due to the emergence of new, more active and flexible manufacturers.

It's unlikely that the new solar roofs will allow Tesla to break even, but Musk appears committed to pushing them anyway. Mass production is set to begin at Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York. Its construction cost $900 million, with $750 million coming in state subsidies. It is the largest such factory in the Western Hemisphere.

There is always a high risk when releasing new revolutionary products, especially if they cost twice as much as their less advanced counterparts. Dow Chemical ( NYSE: DOW.NYSE) began producing Powerhouse solar tiles in 2010. The company hoped to turn the product into a multi-billion dollar business, but failed. In 2014, Dow abandoned the construction of a silicon wafer plant in Tennessee, and last year it completely stopped producing Powerhouse panels. Losses exceeded $500 million. Another case comes to mind: Solyndra invested $500 million in a revolutionary solar panel design, but it all ended in bankruptcy in 2012. There were other victims. SunEdison and Abengoa ceased to exist in 2016. Sungevity and OneRoof went bankrupt. Panel makers SolarWorld and Suniva blame dumping Chinese companies for their collapse.

John Berger, CEO of Sunnova, a Houston-based solar company with 50,000 customers, says:

“It’s an unfortunate fact, but technology is advancing.”

He said he had never thought about making components because of the constant stream of technological innovations. Sunnova has survived and thrived by constantly controlling costs and targeting wealthier customers. Berger admires the industry's rapid progress and the falling prices of solar cells. Currently, the cost of equipment ($0.5 per watt of power) occupies a small part of general expenses for installation solar system($3.50 per watt of power).

The emergence of cheaper and effective technologies reduces total cost systems and reduces the size of installation contracts, the size of which depends on the price of the panels. IN profitable business a decrease in profitability can be compensated by an increase in sales. With low profitability (or unprofitability), increasing sales volumes in an accelerated way leads to bankruptcy. After takeovers SolarCity Tesla first stopped the practice of turnkey sales. This allowed a large number of contracts to be concluded, but it also caused great dissatisfaction among consumers. Currently federal services are closely watching as Tesla and Sunrun report a growing number of broken contracts.

In the meantime, investors would do well to pay attention to asset-backed bonds, released in recent years SolarCity and other industry companies. Between 2010 and 2015, SolarCity and its competitors grew so quickly because they borrowed billions of dollars from banks and hedge funds. The main way to switch to solar energy at that time was to rent solar panels from a company and enter into a power purchase agreement. The federal government would recoup at least 30% of the deal in the form of tax breaks and subsidies (and even accelerated depreciation!). The companies leased solar panels to homeowners, who paid for each kilowatt of solar energy coming from their own roofs (with the cost increasing by 3% annually). This approach created a stable cash flow, perfect for securitization and issuance of asset-backed bonds (OAB).

In 2013, SolarCity sold approximately $1 billion of such securities. Agencies usually assigned a BBB rating to such releases. Currently average profitability securities rated BBB is 3.7%. The average expiration of their term is about 5 years. Thus, an increase in interest rates by 100 bp. will cause the value of the bonds to decline by 5% or more. In 2008, BBB bond yields jumped to 10%. In an article on innovation in solar securitization, MIT professors Francis Sullivan and Charles Warren note that “few other forms of securitization have the same fundamental technology risks as solar PJSCs.” For example, cars are rented or leased for shorter periods, plus there is a large secondary market. If a customer stops paying, it is relatively easy to recover the loss. stock manager James Chanos calls Tesla/SolarCity "walking bankrupts."

Musk disagrees, as does Sunnova's Berger. "Bonds work great," he says. Over the past two months, Sunnova has issued $700 million in new asset-backed securities. In his opinion, the market will gradually be consolidated by large energy companies who will understand that solar panels (and batteries) naturally combined with already operating gas power plants. Over time, solar energy will no longer require subsidies and will become a boring but stable business. There may even be a niche in the market for glass solar roofs, but the likelihood is low. Berger says:

“This is not Facebook. This is a business with very specific products. The producer with the lowest cost wins.”

But SolarCity is hardly a low-cost producer - the company laid off 20% of its workforce last year. On May 16, CEO and co-founder Lyndon Rive announced his imminent departure. The company is "healthier than ever," he said. The CEO never fulfilled his promise to attract 1 million clients by 2018 (their number is now about 325 thousand). Perhaps Rive will try again; he recently told Reuters about plans to found new company next year.

Prepared by Evgenia Sidorova

Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, presented another revolutionary product that every family can use within a year or two. According to the portal politicallore.com, Elon Musk has created an innovative energy-saving product - a solar panel in the form of a tile. The roof decor element has become both functional and environmentally friendly.

Elon Musk presented roof tiles in the form of solar modules; this combination of benefit and beauty will help save on electricity. Previously, Musk and his companies (Tesla and SolarCity) have already developed PowerWall - solar panels for the home that can generate electricity around the clock, providing energy to the house. In the future, Musk intends to help people switch households from traditional energy sources to solar panels. He stated this:

“Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy.”

Elon Musk and the Infinite Energy Project

Elon Musk has long been working on a line of inventions aimed at saving and reducing the cost of energy. The billionaire developed an electric car, created PowerWall batteries ( lithium ion battery, whose solar panel produces excess energy during the day that can be used at night), now it’s the turn of another type of solar panel - in the form of tiles. Such energy sources reduce the need for recharge from a centralized power grid, reducing the cost of energy.

Elon Musk is the largest shareholder in Tesla and SolarCity, the latter run by his cousins. Analysts note that SolarCity is unprofitable, so Musk should consider merging it with Tesla. The board of directors' vote is scheduled for November 17.

According to Elon Musk, solar tiles will not go on sale until the summer. next year, provided that the billionaire’s two companies successfully merge into one. “Having two separate companies slows down the production of a product, driving up its price. For shareholders this is not best option"Musk explained.

The cost of a roof covered with innovative tiles will be lower than usual. After all, the owner of the house remains at a daily advantage - there is a constant accumulation of energy for the needs of the house and even an electric car. The eccentric Elon Musk’s gaze is directed to the future, so the inventor does not intend to stop there: the sooner a new energy-saving product goes on sale, the faster shareholders and end users will appreciate the benefits and advantages of the innovation.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the release of new products at the SolarCity reporting meeting, which summed up financial results for the second quarter of 2016. The entrepreneur is on the company's board of directors, but his interest in this event is explained by the upcoming deal - at the end of July, Tesla made the final decision to acquire SolarCity for $2.6 billion. The deal has not yet been concluded, although Tesla shares fell by 10% after the announcement of the merger, and experts criticized Musk's decision.

The startup SolarCity is engaged in installing facilities and infrastructure for collecting solar energy. At the meeting, Musk emphasized that the company's next product will not be individual modules that are installed on the roof, but a finished coating - a solar roof. We are probably talking about a roof made of solar panels.

SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive noted that the startup will release two products by the end of the year. By this time, the sale of the company will be finalized.

Rive also confirmed that the startup is preparing to release a roof covering. In his opinion, this will open up a new market for SolarCity. Every year, 5 million new roofs are installed in the United States. As Rive noted, many people are reluctant to invest in solar panels because the roof often needs to be replaced or updated. The ready-made offer is just right for those planning renovations, as they will have the opportunity to renew the roof and, at the same time, acquire a source of solar energy.

The authors of the SolarCity project, including Elon Musk, adhere to a simple concept. It is not necessary to make energy systems for the roofs of buildings, but to construct the roofs themselves from solar panels. For this purpose, roofing tiles were developed in a high-tech format building material. The panel samples presented last Friday imitate ceramic tiles, glass, French slate, textured and curved Tuscan tiles.

The solar panels will be manufactured in a 1 GW factory being built in Buffalo. The SolarCity plant will begin operations in the second quarter of 2017.

They are all opaque when viewed from below or from the side, so you won't be able to tell where the roof ends and the solar panel array begins.

As Musk said, “This is a roof that is better insulated than traditional construction, produces electricity, and costs less than roofing plus solar.”

It is durable enough to withstand light impacts and the vagaries of the weather, which was demonstrated at the presentation. However, the head of Tesla did not announce the cost of the product and energy generation indicators.

Elon Musk demonstrated perfect complement to such a roof: the second generation Powerwall battery complex from the same Tesla company. It holds 14 kWh of energy - the estimated daily requirement of a 4-room household equipped with typical electrical appliances. If you connect a battery to roof panels and build a house in a sunny region, in theory you get endless source energy.

The idea of ​​​​placing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of houses and the facades of office buildings seems to the founder of Tesla the right way quickly and painlessly join renewable energy sources. Presented by Elon Musk, the “solar tile” project—modules with built-in solar panels hidden under a material that imitates conventional roofing—managed to impress and interest the public. On the one hand, installing electricity-generating roofs would allow the homeowner to have free source energy, and on the other hand, it would simultaneously fit into the exterior design, without making global changes to the style of the building.

Taking into account the two advantages mentioned above, a logical question arises about the cost of such an upgrade, which could negate all the advantages of the much-touted “solar roofs” developed by Tesla, making them economically unjustified. Questions at the time of announcement pricing policy I did not stand for such a product, although Mr. Musk himself emphasized the need to produce truly affordable products. The cost of such roofs will not exceed the price of a high-quality roof.

After a recent meeting of Tesla shareholders, during which the company’s co-owners voted to acquire the Solar City energy company, Elon Musk assured that their “solar tiles” would not only be the same price as a standard roof, but even cheaper. If we take into account the savings on electricity bills after installing innovative roofs, their mass appearance may not be far off. In addition to this argument, Tesla experts assured that their proprietary “tiles” with a glass layer characterized by voluminous textures will in practice be more durable and resistant than the alternative existing in the same price range without built-in solar panels. True, the question of timely maintenance of Tesla roofs, repair of individual sections of it that were damaged by the elements or careless neighbors, as well as complete replacement high-tech roofing if necessary.

“Yesterday I met with engineers from the Solar City team and, despite the lack of 100 percent guarantees in achieving the desired result, we are moving along the path of creating roofs with integrated solar panels and original design solutions with a cost lower than the roofing used today. And in theory, its cost may turn out to be more attractive even without taking into account the savings on electricity bills. Therefore, think about our proposal: would you like to become the owner of a roof that looks no worse than a regular roof, but will last you twice as long, cost less, and also powers electrical appliances?— Elon Musk summed up.