Tesla Latest Solar Roof Patent Which Will Benefit Consumers With Even More Affordable Prices

The success of solar panels or roof tiles directly depends on how much this product will be in demand. Besides the fact that it should have a beautiful appearance, high quality and high performance, cost is a very important factor.

The attractiveness of the product over time depends on whether the manufacturer was able to reduce production costs. If the company was not able to offer customers competitive prices, then over time it will lose the interest of mass.

Tesla's goal has always been to accelerate the transition from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy to a solar electric economy, which the company considers to be the main one. And for this, it seeks to develop products that will be affordable to the mass market. Almost any new technology initially has a high cost before it can be optimized. But Tesla is working hard to achieve its goal by creating an affordable product.

Tesla filed Patent 'Solar roof tile free of back encapsulant layer' on September 14, 2018.
Published date: March 19, 2020

The patent shows one of the embodiment for reducing the cost of Tesla Solar Roof.

The photovoltaic tile module may include a plurality of photovoltaic tiles mechanically and electrically connected to each other. A suitable photovoltaic tile may include a front glass cover, a rear glass cover, a plurality of photovoltaic structures located between the front and rear glass covers, and one sealing layer located between the front glass cover and the photovoltaic structures. The surface of the photovoltaic structures is in direct contact with the rear glass cover.

The manufacturing method described in the patent may include obtaining a rear glass cover; obtaining a cascade string of photovoltaic structures; placing the cascade string directly on the rear glass cover so that the surface of the cascade string is in direct contact with the rear glass cover; placing a sealing layer and a front glass cover on top of the cascading thread; and perform a lamination operation to laminate together the front glass cover, cascading thread and the rear glass cover.

Source: Tesla patent

This invention solves at least the technical problem of making it possible to inexpensively manufacture solar tiles or tile modules. A new solar tile may include only one sealing layer, which is located between the front cover of the tile and the photovoltaic stripes. The back surface of the photovoltaic strips can be in direct contact with the back cover, and the front surface of the photovoltaic strips can be coated with a single sealing layer, which can also cover areas of the back cover not covered by the photovoltaic strips. After lamination, a single sealing layer can seal the photovoltaic strip between the front and back covers, filling the empty spaces between the front and back covers of the solar tile.

This invention will help reduce the cost of solar tiles without adversely affecting their quality. Tesla makes Solar Roof affordable for the mass market. Together with other inventions of the company, its products go to a new level. Thanks to this, Tesla's Solar business will soon begin to bring huge profits.