[上图]特斯拉的新玻璃屋顶瓷砖隐藏在下面的太阳能电池。信用：Bloomberg;YouTube
特斯拉希望将可持续能源融入我们的日常生活中，这是一种大事.
Although most famous for making electric cars, last week Tesla unveiled its concept for solar glass roofing tiles that will expand the company’s vision for a future powered by integrated sustainable energy.
而且，由于每年在美国安装了约500万个新屋顶，因此每个房屋顶部都有一个可持续能源的大型市场。太阳能电池板已经在大约安装百万U.S. homes currently.
But Tesla’s vision isn’t about adding sustainable energy—it’s about completely integrating it into our homes and lives. The company’s three-part solution consists of energy generation, storage, and transport with its own brand of solar roofing tiles, battery packs, and electric cars, respectively.
在里面Tesla launch video, CEO Elon Musk shares his vision for an integrated sustainable energy future and shows off an aesthetically pleasing cadre of solar cell glass roofing tiles.
According to Musk, Tesla teamed up with solar energy company SolarCity to create a solar roof that is not just functional, but beautiful, affordable, and integrated. The solar roof tiles will be available as a joint product with SolarCity, pending approval of a拟议合并在这两家公司中（预计将于11月17日进行股东投票）。
If that happens, Musk says that Tesla will join forces with Panasonic to manufacture the new solar cells in a Buffalo, N.Y. facility, according to a商业内幕article.
But Tesla has released little details about the technology behind its太阳屋顶瓷砖除了表明它们结合了“高效率”太阳能电池。
According to aTechcrucharticle马斯克说，屋顶瓷砖中的太阳能电池达到了常规太阳能电池板效率的98％，但是有改进的空间。“他说，该公司正在与3M合作进行涂料，这些涂料可以帮助光进入面板，然后折射到其中，使其捕获更多将其转化为易于使用的能量的潜在能量。”
In true Tesla style, one of the most impressive things about the new roofing tiles is how good they look. The company is offering four styles of glass roofing tiles—textured, smooth, slate-style, and terra cotta-style—most of which almost completely mask the fact that they incorporate solar cells.
为此，太阳能电池被特斯拉所说的“百叶窗胶片”所覆盖，该薄膜掩盖了它们的视野 - 但仍然允许阳光通过 - 和一个钢化玻璃盖，为瓷砖提供了玻璃的演示durability and impact resistance.
Depending on the roofing tile style, that glass is textured, specially styled, or hydrographically printed—a process that prints a unique pattern on each tile—to hide the solar cells within and make the glass surface mimic the look of standard roofing materials.
Tesla claims that due to glass’s durability, the solar roof should last two to three times longer than traditional roofs because of its toughness against even harsh elements like hail.
马斯克说，特斯拉新创建的“特殊玻璃技术集团”开发了玻璃屋顶瓷砖，并且还将将相同的玻璃技术纳入公司的新型Model 3 Automobile。商业内幕文章。马斯克在通话中说：“‘它正在使用汽车玻璃业务中的许多技术，如果宣布这一消息并不明显，特斯拉已经建立了一个玻璃技术集团，与一些非常出色的人。”
但是，太阳能屋顶只是特斯拉远离化石燃料和可持续能源的愿景的一部分。上周的发布还首次亮相该公司的PowerWall 2，这是一种住宅电池系统，可作为其集成的家庭储能解决方案。PowerWall 2提供的储能和功率输出是原始PowerWall电池的两倍，价格为5,500美元。
Tesla mentioned no price tag for its solar roof yet, but the company’s website says that the roof will have “lower cost that a traditional roof when combined with projected utility bill savings.”
虽然特斯拉不是第一家公司to try sell consumers on the idea of solar roofing tiles, it’s vision of an integrated energy solution—with solar roofing tiles for energy generation, large-scale battery packs for energy storage, and electric cars for energy transport—may be the key to selling homeowners on the branded idea of going completely sustainable with off-grid energy. But it’s not an idea withoutreal-world challenges, so we’ll have to see how Tesla’s vision pans out.
For now, you can catch a preview of the new glass tiles in this short Bloomberg video.
信用：Bloomberg;YouTube