How to get Tesla Solar Roof in your area: 3 tips from an owner

Jason Lassen is the proud owner of a Tesla Solar Roof — but getting it installed wasn’t easy.

The 45-year-old insurance agent is a real estate investor in his spare time. He and his wife are putting the finishing touches on their new home in Wisconsin that they built themselves. On top is a solar roof that measures just under 4,900 square feet, which will deliver 15.9 kilowatts of power.

“I strongly believe that this is the wave of the future,” Lassen tells Inverse. “To put it in a cold climate perspective, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Want to find out more top tips about how the Certified Installer program works, what it’s like working with Tesla on a new home project, and how Tesla’s roof price compares to a traditional roof plus solar panels? Read the full interview, only in MUSK READS+.

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Lassen’s video, which shows his roof in the snow, went viral last month. At the time of writing, it has nearly 1 million views, in part thanks to Tesla sharing the video on its official Twitter account:

When did Elon Musk debut the Tesla Solar Roof?

Tesla’s roof tiles are designed to harvest solar energy for home use while looking like regular roofing to the untrained eye. Tesla CEO Elon Musk first demonstrated the tiles in October 2016 on the set of Desperate Housewives as part of a “house of the future”: the tiles pair with a Powerwall battery and a Tesla Model 3 electric car. The battery ensures the home has 24-hour access to zero-emissions energy.

The roof was relatively rare in its early years. When Musk unveiled Tesla’s third-generation solar roof tiles in October 2019, he announced a number of changes aimed at speeding up installations. One of these was working with third-party certified roof installers.

It was through this avenue that Lassen was able to get the roof installed on his home. Tesla did not have any of its own installers in his area at the time, nor were there any certified third parties. Lassen spent months researching installers and persuading them to get certified.

For people interested in following a similar route, Lassen has three tips:

1. “If having a Tesla roof is important to you, don't give up.”
2. If one direction doesn’t work, try another. Lassen says Tesla may not have its own installers in the area, so the Certified Installer channel may be able to help.
3. If your area doesn’t have a certified installer, “find a company that you'd work well with and get them interested.” The process could take eight months to a year.

It’s a long process, but the reward could make it all worth it.

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