The Daily Pennsylvanian is a student-run nonprofit.

Please support us by disabling your ad blocker on our site.

locust_walk
The tree-lined Locust Walk on the University of Pennsylvania campus is one of the city’s most pleasant spaces, with gothic ivy-covered red brick buildings dating back to the late 1800s. Home to Penn and Drexel University, West Philadelphia is known as the region’s hub for education and science, but its restaurants, shops, museums, galleries, parks and (especially) its residents make the neighborhood feel like one big, culture-heavy town. Credit: Photo by J. Fusco for GPTMC , Photo by J. Fusco for GPTMC

Tesla CEO and 1997 Wharton graduate Elon Musk unveiled his company’s new solar roofs last Friday evening, according to Bloomberg Technology.

The roofs enclose conventional solar panels yet look identical to normal roofs. Musk said they are “tough as steel” and have “a quasi-infinite lifetime,” Bloomberg Technology reported.

Musk claims that purchasing a solar roof will save customers more money than buying a normal shingled roof and grid electricity.

At the unveiling, the audience toured a house powered by a Tesla solar roof.  During the night, this house stores the collected solar energy in Tesla Powerwall batteries.

While the tiles currently hamper the panels’ energy efficiency by two percent, Musk told reporters he anticipates that future developments will enhance their efficiency.

The roof tiles are available in four different designs.