Tesla’s Solar
Roof tiles will
be available
in terra-cotta
style in 2018.
Here’s why Tesla’s new Solar Roof tiles might have an edge
Tesla’s Solar Roof shingles are noteworthy for their design, but they’re not
the first solar tiles on the market. Industrial behemoths like Dow and BP began
selling them alongside typical solar panels as long as 15 years ago—before
exiting the market due to high costs and low demand—and there are at least
three competitive products being sold today. While traditional solar panels have
consistently dropped in price, tiles have remained relatively expensive and don’t
generate as much power. Chris Fisher, a product manager at roofing company
CertainTeed, estimates that CertainTeed’s tiles convert about 16% of the sunlight
they receive into energy, compared to 18% for traditional panels. But expense
and efficiency will only be part of the equation for Tesla customers. Solar Roof
tiles only became available for preorder in May (they are due to market later this
year), and high-end developers are already buying in. “The Tesla shingles look
like something we’ll feel comfortable putting on our buildings,” says Marmol
Radziner design principal Ron Radziner, who is planning to use them on the roofs
of a small apartment complex in Santa Monica, California. “They’re clean and
look well-designed, and that’s important.” ;KIM LIGHTBODY
Hayes Barnard, the latter of whom arrived via
SolarCity’s $120 million purchase of his direct-
marketing firm Paramount Solar. The atmo-
sphere, many employees felt, became testoster-
one-fueled and sales-obsessed. “It was a radical
change, like the tree huggers got replaced with
a fraternity house,” says a former sales leader,
who describes the sales group demographics
as becoming more male dominated, filled with
“guys who were used to selling mortgages in a
boiler room.”
SolarCity had made a number of smart in-
vestments in order to keep its product differ-
entiated and reduce costs. Serra, who oversaw
operations, was a driving force behind the
company’s acquisition of Zep Solar, an innova-
tive startup that had developed an industry-
leading panel-mounting system that lowered
SolarCity’s average time of installation from
days to just hours. But Serra and Lyndon also
launched a distracting expansion into Mexico
and acquired a solar-panel technology startup
called Silevo for at least $200 million, which
would eventually eat up substantial capital at
a time when solar-panel prices started plum-
meting to the point of commoditization. (Serra
declined to comment for this story.)
If there was one sign that the company was
flying too close to the sun, it was, many felt, an
extravagant sales-team huddle in Las Vegas
around March 2015. In a scene straight out of
HBO’s Silicon Valley, Barnard, then SolarCity’s
chief revenue officer, burst onto the stage in
front of Lyndon, Peter, and 1,300 employees
(Musk would arrive later) at Hakkasan nightclub, rapping over Nicki Minaj and Drake’s hit
“Truffle Butter” while surrounded by provocatively dressed dancers. At another point,
he appeared dressed as Helios, the Greek sun
god, wearing a green suit of armor designed
by the same people who created the Iron Man
costume for that movie. There was, after all,
much for him to celebrate. SolarCity was by
then the clear industry leader, owning a third
of the residential market and handling more
installations than its next 50 competitors
combined. (Barnard explains that he was only
trying to rally his troops, and strongly denies
that the culture became bro-y. “I don’t tolerate
that bullshit,” he says.)
The company’s growth rate—it was hiring
100 sales reps a week to help hit aggressive
targets—led to some dubious tactics when it
came to marketing SolarCity’s zero-money-down concept. Many sources felt that the drive
to hook customers often eclipsed any concerns
about whether they would follow through with
the lease purchase. “You had all these poorly
THE SHINGLE FACTOR
