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Tesla Solar Sales Declined for 4 Qtrs. Then Tesla Stopped Publishing the Numbers

(cleantechnica.com)
171 points elsewhen | 2 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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boringg ◴[09 Apr 25 13:31 UTC] No.43631867[source]▶
Can I add that outside of the political commentary because thats mainly the only reason this is on hackernews.

There are mounting challenges in climate tech - specifically in residential solar: 1. Residential solar has been under punishing economic headwinds. Tariffs (before this) against imported PV. The market has not been performing. 2. Many of the Public Utilities are making it very difficult for solar to work out financially for home owners - see CPUC in California changing the terms of NEM to the advantage of the Utilities as an example. 3. Energy storage in residential markets has ALWAYS been an insurance product/backup power and not a financially beneficial product. It is tough competition against generators etc 4. Utilities are wisening up and increasing their fees and reducing the benefits of on site power generation. 5. Residential solar has likely already found all the best home owners (ie lowest CAC) so are now pursuing harder to reach.

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lotsofpulp ◴[09 Apr 25 13:39 UTC] No.43631946[source]▶
The risk reward ratio is way off at most people’s electricity prices. At best, you save yourself a few dollars in electricity costs (unless you’re in super high priced and sunny California).

At worst, you need to deal with a roofing problem.

For backup purposes, a generator and some fuel seems to be a lot more bang for the buck.

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1. singhrac ◴[09 Apr 25 15:12 UTC] No.43633050[source]▶
I'm having a bit of a Gell-Mann moment here - I'm hearing the exact opposite from every residential and C&I installer I talk to, that solar installations are booming right now.

There are very few states in the US where net metering doesn't exist, with California having the NBT (and Arizona and Utah something similar iirc), and Alabama, South Dakota, Tennessee, Idaho, and Texas all have utility-set forms of net metering. Just because California has phased it out and it's a sunny state doesn't mean you can't install a solar roof in Massachusetts and benefit.

The cost of panels is dirt cheap (even with tariffs). You don't need energy storage if you pay $100/month in energy costs, just offset that. Home Depot will install it if you want!

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2. boringg ◴[09 Apr 25 15:55 UTC] No.43633532[source]▶
"I talk to, that solar installations are booming right now" -- where are you located? Rezi installs used to be a 30% year over year growth market. Last year growth went negative... this year is going to be significantly worse.