Tesla CEO Elon Musk tentatively said that adding solar and Powerwall to your home could increase your home value and he is probably right.
Over the last few months, Tesla has been trying to revamp its solar business.
More recently, Tesla launched a new solar rental service under which homeowners can get a solar panel system for just $50 per month.
They have also launched a new commercial solar online ordering platform.
The company has been making its pricing simpler, more transparent, and they have been pushing the energy products more actively.
Now Musk is even talking about Tesla Solar and Powerwall potentially increasing the value of homes (via Twitter):
“Very likely that a home with clean power that’s lower cost than utility, plus blackout protection via Powerwall, will have a positive effect on value.”
While he is being very careful about the language he is using here, he is actually likely right in most cases.
Several studies have shown that solar array systems indeed increase the average sale price of homes.
Musk cited one specific study from Zillow that shows homes with solar “sold for 4.1% more on average than comparable homes”:
“Not only can adding solar panels to a home save energy costs and help the environment, it also can potentially increase a home’s value. During the past year, homes with solar-energy systems sold for 4.1% more on average than comparable homes without solar power. For the median-valued home, that translates to an additional $9,274.”
That’s just with a home solar array.
Tesla has also been trying to match Powerwall sales with most new solar systems that they install.
It’s harder to understand the impact on value than the solar arrays because they are not generating as much revenue and some of their value is in their potential to reduce the impact of power outages, which is hard to estimate.
Tesla’s Powerwall sales, and its entire energy storage division, have been consistently increasing, but solar power deployment has crashed over the last 3 years.
Last quarter, Tesla installed just 29 MW of solar power.
Electrek’s Take
We saw a clear trend from Elon and Tesla over the past few months to push for the solar business.
It will be interesting to see if it had an impact during Q3.
A reversal of the downward trend would be appreciated by investors, but I don’t think they should expect Tesla to go back to installing over 100 MW per quarter until next year.
We also still don’t have much evidence of significant deployment of solar roof tiles, which would help boost Tesla’s solar business.
Tesla will reveal how much solar they deployed during Q3 on Wednesday.
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