Tesla Motors has long enabled an end-to-end ecosystem for its electric cars, from solar power on the roof of a home to the car in the garage. The newest announcement from the company, made on Friday evening, adds an element to this plan by providing solar roof panels that look like conventional roofing material while still generating power.
The announcement could be seen either as a project enabled by, or an attempt to convince customers of, the usefulness of Tesla’s struggling recent acquisition, SolarCity.
SolarCity was founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive and is currently facing a decline in business and stock value.
The new roof panels come in four different styles, all of which are designed to look like conventional shingles from below and to soak up the sun on the top. Underneath the tempered glass surface is a film that gives the tile its color and covers the high-efficiency solar cell.
The tiles are made with hydrographic printing, which means that each one will have a slightly different color.
Tesla hasn’t yet detailed exactly how much power the shingles can produce individually, when they might be available for purchase, or at what price.
Musk also announced a longer-lasting Powerwall home battery with 14kWh energy storage and 7 kW power output on Friday, as well as a Powerpack battery targeted at utility companies.
Other companies are also working on solar roofing: the Huffington Post profiled Saint-Gobain and Lima Resources, both of which sell solar shingles. In another high-profile case, though, Dow Chemical stopped producing its solar shingles in June due to sales lower than what had been predicted.
Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity has not been finalized yet, but will go to a vote on Nov. 17.