Tesla Solar Sales Declined for 4 Qtrs. Then Tesla Stopped Publishing the Numbers

At worst, you need to deal with a roofing problem.

For backup purposes, a generator and some fuel seems to be a lot more bang for the buck.

The UK, on the other hand: https://www.fmb.org.uk/homepicks/news/surge-in-solar-panel-i... ; helped by an efficiency mandate on new houses.

You can buy small solar panels in the supermarket, and plug them into the wall socket, which normally is a no no. Per household a maximum of 800 watt though.[1] For more you need something proper that does not just connect via a normal wall socket.

[1] Maybe also 2000 watt but only 800 feed into the grid?

Recently added another 4000kWh of yearly production to my garage for €4000 all in because why not. I also have a 20 kWh LFP battery now, €7000 all-in (and dropping quickly!), which works out fine.

Many people now buy "plug-in" products: small batteries or single PV panel that you just plug into the grid directly, no installation required.

All the issues you list are governmental issues, not PV issues. The global PV indsutry is EXPLODING.

I have a feeling they are not really that competitive in this market segment, but were helped by a strong brand.

Anyone know if they actually make money on Solar at all, and have an idea what their profit margin is?

And what does the the competition look like (also for e.g. PowerWall)?

It's an ultra-competitive commodity business; the business goes to whoever will sell and install the things the cheapest.

But solar has become a commodity product. Panel-wise the big bucks is in massive industrial greenfield installations, but Tesla's private-label brand can't compete on that market. In the residential market they are competing with every single local contractor who's willing to make a few bucks throwing bargain-bin panels on your roof, and their own system of proprietary panels and subcontractors can't compete with that either - especially when they force you to buy a power wall as well.

From my conversations it was a complete mess to get installed, with poor communication on their end. After it was installed he had 2 issues within 2 years resulting in them needing to replace hardware.

Add in that it was quite expensive, he is not a happy customer.

A repuatable local company will be cheaper and you can have roughly the same equipment (tesla powerwall) and have after sales support.

For the installation - most roofing companies will install the roof mounts and screw on the solar panels for $1.5k-$2k (might be different in your area, but still cheap). An electrician can be hired to make all the solar panel connections and the grid connection for a few hundred $$$.

As the Project Manager - you'll need to source the panels, file the permits, and hire the roofers and electricians. https://www.solarwholesale.com/jerry-rig-everything/ can assist (assist, not do) all of that for you for a cheap price. $10k-$15k with Solar Wholesale will get you the panels and cables you need, plus the engineering drawings, the permit paperwork, and etc. (thank you for the great Solar DIY series Jerry!)

For $20k and working as the Project Manager yourself, you can get what most solar companies will charge you $50k for. Which is ballpark inline with construction project management costs - typical residential construction project management cost 40-50% of the total project budget. A lot of those projects as complex enough to warrant those fees, unless you have a lot of experience, but in my opinion adding solar to your roof is not a complex process and does not warrant those fees.

Political=> he did a full blown Nazi salute twice and has been working to have millions fired from their government jobs. The conservatives who don't seem as bothered by that have never been interested in EVs to begin with and his liberal fanboy customers will never buy from him again now. He is extremely unpopular in Germany and China's Tesla market is being out competed. I don't think that makes Tesla look good long term, so I'd be cautious about a long term investment with them like rooftop solar. That's just my opinion anyway.

Just talk to your neighbors about reputable local installers. They'll have panel and storage options.

That said, because these things are largely commoditized, there's some turmoil in the market. Our (excellent!) local installer was saved by the PPP during the pandemic, which was a bit of a sobering thought -- they're the ones backingthe 25 year installation guarantee!

Then Sunpower (our panel vendor, and one of the higher end ones, at that) went out of business. Our monitoring system continues to work thanks to the work of the bankruptcy courts, though it's been transferred to a company who is trying to support those assets be having a freemium model.

In the bay area, it might be cheaper to opt into 100% renewable rate plans from CleanPowerSF or Peninsula Clean Energy. (Silicon Valley Power is 100% renewable by default, IIRC.)

1. The installer you choose is more important than anything else. The panels are pretty commoditized at this point. The battery cells are pretty much commoditized as well (they are 2-3 companies all of the major battery companies use). Your biggest worry is not if, but when, things break. Most well known manufacturers (REC, Enphase, Canadian Solar, Hyundai, etc.) have good warranty policies, but you need someone to coordinate that - so make sure your solar installer does that on your behalf.

2. A Powerwall battery is 13.5 kWh and has a 11 kW inverter. The base is $8k and $6k for each battery expansion. A similar, well known, brand EG4 sells the same battery for $3.7k and a similarly spec'd inverter is around $2.5k. Generally speaking Tesla installers quote much higher on labor than others too.

3. From the installers I spoke to they dont really like working with Tesla.

4. If you live in a place like Texas, Florida, etc., I wouldn't even bother with batteries unless you have a relatively small house. Most houses suck down so much energy that a natural gas generator is way more cost effective.

The biggest f* to the world is an oligarch / the richest person in the world, dismantling social help for poor people.

I'm pretty sure there have been death due to this.

You can't disrupt a governance and poor people like twitter without real consequences (and yes even for the twitter people it was shitty but lets be real, no food vs. getting fired from a well paying job is not the same)