Although Tesla supporters and investors regularly argue that Tesla is not simply a “automaker,” but also a tech firm, or even an AI-company based on CEO Elon Musk’s most recent remarks, Tesla is, at least in terms of revenue, an automaker.
The energy division, which uses stationary battery packs and solar power systems for energy storage, accounts for a much lower share of the company’s overall revenue. The company’s goal remains to develop a “global decentralized electric utility,” and Musk has forecast that Tesla’s energy segment could eventually outnumber or even surpass its vehicle division in size.
Given that Tesla Energy earned only $616 million of the company’s $18.7 billion in revenue during the most recent quarter, that is still a long way off.
Due to the unpredictability of solar deployment and the difficulties in scaling up its solar roof product, which embeds solar cells directly in roof tiles rather than adding solar panels to existing roofs, the division has had ups and downs.
Electrek learnt today that Tesla is making success with its solar deployment, as its US residential sector, which accounts for the vast majority of its solar deployment, had its best quarter since 2017, immediately following the acquisition of SolarCity.
According to a person familiar with the issue, Tesla deployed 71.5 MW of solar systems in the US residential solar sector in Q2 2022. The overall number Tesla reports at the end of the month will be higher because it will include some corporate installations and some installations outside of the United States.
The bad news remains Tesla’s disappointingly limited adoption of its solar roof product.
Tesla has never specified how solar energy is distributed between the solar roof and the solar panels (solar retrofit). The earlier it stated that it will produce 4 MW of solar tiles in a single week in 2020 (but not for installation), the closer it came to providing figures.
In a quarterly report last year, Tesla indicated that it had increased the number of solar roof installations, but did not disclose the rate of deployment.
Electrek can officially report for the first time that Tesla installed 2.5 MW of solar roofing during the second quarter of 2022.
Tesla may have placed solar roofs on roughly 300 residences in the second quarter, or about 23 roofs per week, based on a conservative estimate of 8 kW.
Opinion Of Electrek
Although it is exciting to see Tesla increasing its overall solar deployment, it is clear that solar panels will continue to be Tesla’s primary source of power.
The solar roof installation has been disappointing.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had hoped to install 1,000 solar roofs per week, but the business looks to be doing only about 23 per week as of the most recent quarter.
Despite the fact that Tesla has now installed solar roof version three,
It is currently unknown what the bottleneck is. We understand that evaluating the roof’s endurance was challenging for Tesla, but the firm hasn’t mentioned it in a long time. Installations can also be tricky because roofs are usually distinctive and difficult to standardize.
