Musk Introduces Solar Shingles To Replace Conventional Solar Rooftops

Elon Musk has been pushing the envelope in environmentally friendly business practices for years, which often ruffled feathers in Wall Street. Now, the Tesla Motors CEO is introducing a new way to place solar panels on residential rooftops, which are made to look like traditional roof tiles.

“The key is to make solar look good.”

That is what Musk said to a crowd gathered at a back lot in Universal Studios, Hollywood, LA Times reports. Based on how the panels look like Tuscan barrel tiles that are commonly found in France, the EV pioneer certainly has something pretty to offer.

The solar panels are also meant to work well with the wall-mounted Tesla batteries that the company is now offering for residential and even business areas. The batteries are intended to hold a significant amount of solar energy collected during the day, which will then be used when the sun isn’t shining brightly enough to provide power.

On that note, Musk did pick a curious time to unveil his latest creation, since the solar industry in California is slowing down. In 2015, the first three quarters saw a jump in sales and adoption of solar panels by 66 percent. This year, it’s only at 12 percent.

Sales are holding steady, but it became noticeably sluggish. According to experts, much of this is because of the depleted numbers of early adopters, as well as worries regarding the renewal of tax incentives by Congress.

As for how this trend will affect Musk’s new solar panels, CleansTechnica notes how the pleasing appearance of the solar tiles might just attract the sort of crowd that is turned off by how ugly conventional solar panels look. This might just give the floundering industry the shot in the arm that it needs, especially in a state where fashionable living is a rather high priority.