Tesla Solar Roof New Variants with Textured, Colored Tile Patent

It appears that Tesla is working on some improvements for its Solar Roof tiles that may allow the company to release new variants of the flagship solar product. These potential Solar Roof improvements were discussed extensively in a recently-published patent, which described how the electric car and energy company intends to roll out tiles that feature a better, more seamless appearance. Tesla’s Solarglass Roof tiles are already among the most Aesthetically-pleasing PV systems in the market. A Solar Roof installation involves the setup of both PV and non-PV roof tiles, and according to Tesla, this could present some issues. Since some tiles do not have solar cells in them, there will be some angles or times when it is possible to distinguish which tiles have solar cells and which do not. Tesla notes that these issues are due to several factors, including tiny imperfections during the Solar Roofs’ manufacturing process or the fact that PV roof tiles tend to look different when viewed under different lighting and at different viewing angles. According to Tesla, there are ways to get around these challenges, such as adopting a robust color-management scheme and some adjustments in the Solar Roof tiles’ manufacturing line. Tesla noted that it would be able to create Solar Roof tiles that feature much less “glow” than typical integrated PV systems. The patent also covered how reactive ion etching (RIE) techniques could be utilized to create textured pv tiles. These invoke images of the various Solar Roof variants that Elon Musk unveiled in 2016, which included textured tiles that mirrored the appearance of materials like slate and clay.