Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk held a press conference last week to announce the new rooftop solar tiles at Universal Studios Hollywood's old "Desperate Housewives" set, where the houses surrounding him all had recently had the new solar tiles installed on their roofs.

"Electric cars originally didn't look good. They had low range; they didn't have good performance; they were like a golf cart. So people had a real hard time buying electric cars," Musk said. "Something similar has to happen to solar. We need to make solar panels as appealing as electric cars have become."

The solar tiles will be produced by SolarCity at a Buffalo, New York, factory due to open in 2017. Tesla is currently in the process of acquiring SolarCity, of which Musk is the chairman. Tesla Energy, a subsidiary of Tesla, will sell the solar roofing products, along with home and business lithium-ion battery storage systems.

"The goal is the have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof, generate electricity, last longer, have better insulation and actually have an installed cost that is less than a normal roof plus the cost of electricity," Musk said.

Read Full Article