Tesla is often thought of as high-end, luxury renewable technology, but their solar panel business can be a little hard to understand. In 2016, Tesla bought SolarCity, a company that makes solar panels and batteries. The objective was to make it easier to make solar panels and batteries.
Because SolarCity was the largest residential solar installer in the country at that time, this deal was a good one. Many of their panels had to be made by third-party companies because their solar business proliferated. They kept the same sales and marketing infrastructure when Tesla bought them. They couldn’t make solar panels on a large scale. So they worked with more solar manufacturing companies like Panasonic in their Buffalo, New York gigafactory.
Panasonic gave Tesla solar cells, which are the parts of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity for energy generation. They are still working together to make Tesla batteries for Tesla Powerwalls and electric cars even though Tesla and Panasonic have broken up recently. Because there are so many various companies under the Tesla name. It can be hard to figure out what panels you get when you buy Tesla panels.
Is Tesla a solar cell manufacturer?
Not at all. Tesla is not the manufacturer of the solar cells that it sells to people. As you saw above, until recently, Tesla worked with Panasonic to make solar panels called Tesla solar panels. The partnership used Panasonic HIT cells to make Tesla’s solar panels. With Panasonic’s decision to stop making solar cells for Tesla. It’s not yet clear what Tesla will do to make solar cells again.
This is something SolarReviews will keep an eye on. We’re sure Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a plan in place. Panasonic would make solar cells in Tesla’s factory and then sell them to customers in other countries. There was less demand for Tesla solar panels than Panasonic thought. This turned out to be a bad deal for Panasonic, which led them to break up with Tesla.
What are Tesla’s solar panels called?
Now that Panasonic is out of the picture, Tesla partnered with Hanwha to solar panels. They use the QPeak Duo Black solar panels for this. You might not even see the brand of solar panels next to your quote when you call Tesla and ask about solar panels for your home. If you want to put a Tesla Solar Roof on your home. You can buy solar roof shingles or solar tiles. Tesla does not make its solar panels.
As of right now, Hanwha looks like the most likely brand. One of the biggest things about having a Tesla solar panel system is that it looks good. Usually, solar installations have skirting to hide all solar panel mounting hardware from the ground. Making the roof look like it fits right in with the rest of the house. Tesla’s panels will also be black, making the panels look as good as possible.
Why are third-party solar panels used by Tesla?
SolarCity has sold solar panels from other companies in the past for their solar systems. This is how they work with Tesla, too. In this case, it doesn’t make sense for Tesla to reveal the name that makes the solar panels. With the old Panasonic partnership, the solar panels would be called “Tesla brand” solar panels. But, people still bought solar panels from other companies, like Hannah.
It’s hard for people to compare solar panel prices because most company quotes don’t break down the cost and brand of the solar panel they use. You can ask for a quote for a particular brand of solar panels, but it might not be worth it to do so. These days, many solar panels are about the same inefficiency and cost, and they all give off a lot of solar power, so they’re all excellent.
The solar panels might not be made entirely by Tesla, but as long as you know about Tesla’s warranty, you should be able to trust a quote from Tesla. Tesla does offer a 12-year quality warranty and at least 80% of the power capacity after 25 years. As a bonus, Tesla recently started a price match program. In other words, if you compare solar panel prices and find a cheaper option than what Tesla quotes you, you can ask for a price match!
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What does it cost to install?
The process of figuring out how much Tesla solar panels might cost you is pretty simple. You can go to our website and put in your address and how much electricity you use each month to get a quote. Estimating the cost of a 2,300 square foot home with an average electricity bill of $100, $175, and $200 a month was a test run. Tesla said their 8.16 KW system, 12.24 KW system, and 16.32 KW system were the best.
We then used the Tesla website’s estimate tool to enter the same home address with an average monthly electricity bill of $400. Tesla said that the 16.32 KW system was the best choice with that information. For a home, it looks like Tesla can only put in a system that is 16.32 KW. It is straightforward to figure out how much Tesla solar panels will cost for your home based on how much electricity you use on a typical day.
Take a look at the chart below to see how much you can expect to pay for electricity. How many kilowatt-hours (kWh) do you need each day? You can look at your exciting bill to see how many kWh’s your home used in that month and divide it by how many days there were in the month. This will help you figure out how big of a system you need.
There were 1,200kWh in July, so you would divide 1,200 by 31 to get an average of 38kWhs used a day for the whole month, like this: Based on that, you might need the 12.24 KW system. People who buy solar panels and other equipment from Tesla partners have to pay for them as well.
The last word
For Tesla fans, Tesla solar panels are a great choice. They can be easily installed with a Tesla Powerwall home battery to make a wholly powered house by the sun. But Tesla solar panels aren’t the best option on the market when it comes to the efficiency of the panels they have on the market.
You should choose these brands if you want to buy solar panels that are the most efficient. Shop around and use our solar calculator to get a few price quotes from different companies before choosing a company and a brand of solar power. It might be worth it to take advantage of Tesla’s price match option if Tesla is your brand of choice after you compare prices.
