More than a year after announcing a potentially game-changing technology for roof repairs, Tesla has started installing its solar roofs.
The company better known for making electric cars made its first installations for early customers and company brass.
Clean Technica reports:
Much like with the Model 3 launch, Tesla is clearly picking and choosing simpler configurations for the earlier installations of its Solar Roof Tiles to get crews up to speed. Having created a completely new product that’s a hybrid of roofing and solar, it’s exciting to see Tesla taking one of its many tech babies out into the real world for the first time.
The Tesla roofs are glass roofing tiles with integrated solar cells and are designed to look like conventional roofs. The early installations combine the solar roofs with Tesla’s with batteries to further the roofs’ off-grid appeal.
These early installations are just the beginning in a development that could bring whole new materials and methods into play for roof repairs.
Tesla certainly seems to be planning for that eventuality. The company is apparently ramping production of its solar roof tiles at its Gigafactory 2 plant in Buffalo.
According to The Buffalo News:
The company, which said it started making its new solar roofing tiles in Buffalo at the end of last year, is holding five information sessions over the next month to seek out potential workers for its portion of the South Park Avenue factory.
The information sessions are the most extensive in-person recruitment efforts that Tesla has made since it acquired SolarCity in November 2016, although the company has had more than two dozen different jobs posted online for more than a year.
Tesla currently has 34 different types of jobs posted on its website, ranging from managers and engineers to human resources positions and production assistants. Tesla, like its partner, Panasonic, is setting pay at $14 an hour for entry-level production jobs.