Tesla Discontinues Solar Roof as Reporting Drought Extends to 10 Quarters

Key Points

• Tesla stopped accepting Solar Roof orders as of August 20 and informed its network of certified installers that it will no longer supply the tiles, according to Electrek.

• The company has not disclosed a solar deployment figure since the fourth quarter of 2023.

• Tesla’s energy generation and storage revenue increased 13% year over year to approximately $3.1 billion in the second quarter, driven primarily by Megapack sales.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has officially ended its Solar Roof program, according to reporting from Electrek. The company ceased taking orders for the glass solar tiles as of August 20, notified its network of certified installers that it will no longer supply the product, and redirected the Solar Roof page on its website to conventional solar panels.

The product Tesla unveiled in October 2016 was marketed as a reinvention of the roof—shingles that generate power while offering better aesthetics than traditional tiles. CEO Elon Musk outlined ambitious targets for the product. “I’m confident that, let’s say, within the next, I don’t know, year or–maybe even by end of year, we should be installing at a rate of 1,000 a week,” Musk stated on Tesla’s first-quarter 2020 earnings call.

Image source: Getty Images.

The economics never worked

The Solar Roof’s challenge appears to have been less about demand for the concept than about the product’s economics. Tesla marketed the tiles as costing less than a new roof plus traditional solar panels, but actual quotes ran significantly higher. TechCrunch reported quotes reaching $200,000 for a single installation. In 2021, Tesla sharply raised prices, in some cases affecting customers who had already signed contracts. The tiles were unique to the Solar Roof system, requiring custom manufacturing equipment whose cost per unit increased as volumes disappointed expectations.

These volumes appeared in Tesla’s quarterly updates, which reported the solar business as one combined line (megawatts of solar deployed, panels and tiles together). By the fourth quarter of 2023, that figure had declined to 41 megawatts, down 59% year over year and lower for a fourth consecutive quarter.

More significantly: Electrek reported, citing a source close to the program, that Tesla internally concluded the product is not financially viable. Tesla has not publicly explained the decision, and the company may provide more detail when it next reports results, likely in October.

The energy business never needed it

For shareholders, the Solar Roof’s discontinuation says very little about the electric vehicle maker’s energy segment, because the segment’s growth was never dependent on it.

In the second quarter of 2026, Tesla’s energy generation and storage revenue rose 13% year over year to approximately $3.1 billion, representing about 11% of the company’s total revenue. In its quarterly filing, the company attributed the increase to higher Megapack deployments (the utility-scale batteries), partially offset by lower Megapack prices and a decline in Powerwall deployments.

Whatever the mix, volumes continue to build. Tesla deployed 13.5 gigawatt-hours of energy storage in the second quarter, its second-best quarter ever on that measure.

Solar, meanwhile, has disappeared from Tesla’s reporting altogether. The 41 megawatts deployed in the fourth quarter of 2023 turned out to be the last solar deployment figure the company has disclosed to date. The line item vanished from Tesla’s first-quarter 2024 update, and 10 consecutive quarterly updates have now passed without one.

Storage receives a deployment figure every quarter. Solar receives none.

That does not mean Tesla is finished with solar. The company began manufacturing a new retrofit solar panel in 2025, according to its quarterly filing. In July, it applied for Texas tax incentives on a proposed $10.1 billion solar cell factory, with commercial operations targeted for 2029. The energy strategy still centers on storage, though, with Megapack, the newer Megablock, and a new Megafactory under construction near Houston.

The shutdown looks like discipline

The decision appears to reflect disciplined resource allocation, and arguably should have come sooner. Tesla maintained the Solar Roof program for nearly a decade after its unveiling, persisting through pricing resets and production experiments, while the product that actually scaled (the Megapack) drove the segment’s most recent growth and helped push its revenue to approximately $3.1 billion per quarter.

Discontinuing a product this closely associated with the company’s brand, and with Musk’s own commitments, is not a minor move. However, it could free up resources for the segments of the energy business that have demonstrated growth potential.

One risk worth noting remains. The energy segment’s growth rate has moderated to 13%, Powerwall deployments are declining, and Megapack prices are decreasing. Storage is a competitive business, and it now carries the entire segment—for a company whose stock still trades at more than 150 times next year’s expected earnings.

The Solar Roof was intended to make every rooftop a Tesla product. More than six years after Musk indicated Tesla should be installing 1,000 per week, the company is moving on. Judged by where the energy segment’s revenue originates, it arguably should have shifted focus earlier.

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