Tesla now makes you buy its Powerwall if you want its solar roof panels

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Tesla’s solar roofs received a sharp price hike recently, and it seems that’s not the only increase in costs for anyone wanting to buy into the promise of cheaper utility bills. Starting next week, Tesla’s solar range will only get sold bundled with the company’s Powerwall battery.

According to CEO Elon Musk, this bundling will make installations easier, while making it a “seamless whole house backup during utility dropouts.” Both of Tesla’s solar products, Solar Roof (which replaces your existing roof tiles), and Solar Panels (which install over your existing roof) are affected by the change.

That now doubles the cost of adding Tesla’s solar panels to an existing roof, or roughly an additional 50-percent increase to the solar roof, based on the company’s recommended two Powerwalls at $19,000 for the average house.

The reason for the policy change? A director at an investment firm that has “significant stakes” in Tesla tweeted out that his installed Tesla solar panels haven’t actually generated power for his home yet as the local utility company is dragging their heels to approve the connection to the grid.

This might just be a convenient excuse for Tesla, which has been looking at bundling its solar and Powerwall products together for some time, with new Powerwall orders needing to be bundled with solar products.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.