tesla products Solar Roof, Power Wall and EV Charging, is it worth the Cost?

[G. David Felt]

Solar Roof, Power Wall and EV Charging, is it worth the Cost?

When I came across this story, I wondered just what the cost was for having this all in a home and would it be worth the cost? The setup is as follows:

• 2000 sq foot house with Tesla Solar roof - $55,000
• Powerwall 2.0 for 5 kWh storage - $8,500 to $16,000 depending on where you live.
• 240V home charger average cost is from $403 to $930 dollars depending on charger features, median cost is $663

Working from the high side of cost, you have $55,000 + $16,000 + $930 = $71,930 and then you have various rebates from federal and state levels that can run from a low of Federal rebate only of $7,500 up to $15 to 20 thousand dollars including state rebates on top of federal depending on the state you are in.

As one can see, a Tesla solar roof is a very clean natural looking roof that can produce considerable amount of power especially in sunny climates to the south. This house and installation is in San Jose california where home costs are very high and as such, the cost of this roof with powerwall and home charger works out to 24 yrs to a break even point and yet over the 30 year 100% efficiency guarantee for the solar shingles, it will pay the customer $14,000 back.

As comments on the story does state, traditional shingles with traditional solar panels would be considerably less cost. Yet in an area with you have strong sun 5-6 months of the year, the amount of power produced can easily out weight the cost benefits when you have high usage due to AC, EV charging, along with normal home electric usage.

I will say that I looked into a solar roof here in Washington state for my 2000 sq ft house and came up with an installed cost of $30,000 with a break even of 20 years. Due to other factors, I had to pass on doing this at the time, but am looking to get back into the solar roof option due to the efficiency rates having gone up so much more in the last couple of years. LG, Panasonic and Sun Power all produce solar panels over 22% efficient compared to Tesla which in a story back in 2016 stated they would be between 22% to 24% efficient and yet no updated info today from Tesla on the actual production efficiency of a Tesla solar roof tile. Many reviews say that due to the small footprint of each tile and the thin nature, that getting a roof to be over 22% efficient will be very hard for Tesla.

End result is in farther north states, it might be hard to justify for some the cost of a solar installation with powerwall. Yet that said, if you are in a northern state that has high electric rates, humidity from warm summers, a solar option with fixed rate of electricity might be a smart way to go especially if you experience brown outs where the powerwall can help keep you up and running in comparison to your neighbor who is out and unable to keep their food cold.

Over all in the story that started me writing this up, clearly the guy in San Jose California benefits as he returns plenty of power to the grid in a state well known for brownouts and high energy demand. In cooler states with less sunshine, this might be harder to justify unless you are a very green individual that wants to minimize your footprint on the planet.

End result is if you do a solar option, it seems to make sense to include a storage system on top of the net metering back to the grid where available as not all states will take your excess power you produce or pay you for it. West coast states fully support the net metering of buying back power you produce. If you choose to have an electric commuter auto, then you also gain from minimizing your pull from the grid. States that have higher electric rates benefit more than states with cheap electric rates, but everyone still wins having a home charging system with solar and storage for efficient use of electric power.

Insideevs.com story

energyusage.com story

energyusage.com solar panels

solarreviews.com story

homeadvisor.com story

energy.gov site

fortune story