What happened to Tesla's 'Solar Roof' project?

[Peter Kimani]

[Simon Mugo]

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) launched its ‘Solar Roof’ project in October 2016 with the promise of a roofing tile that generated solar energy, looked better and was stronger than traditional roofing tiles, all at a lower cost. The project was supposed to revolutionize the energy industry as home owners could generate and store their solar energy at home via a roof that was much cheaper than traditional roofs and with a 30-year warranty.

However, Tesla has missed most of its original deadlines and has so far done fraction of the installations from its first customers as it works to improve the roofing tiles. However, Elon Musk said that the company had finished developing version 3 of the tile and would ramp up production at its Buffalo Gigafactory.

We are not sure if this project shall reach mass scale given the production bottlenecks that the company has faced with most of its products including its cars. However, recent news reports indicates that Tesla plans to hire more people at its Buffalo facility to work on its electric vehicle Supercharger cabinets and other energy storage products, maybe even the solar roof project.