Tesla’s solar division is expanding its sale presence to 800 Home Depot stores

Since Tesla acquired SolarCity, they have shut down several of the solar installer’s marketing efforts in order to focus on using its own car showroom to promote their solar and energy storage products.

But there’s one marketing effort that they are sticking to and even expanding: a deal with Home Depot.

SolarCity was already marketing its products in a few Home Depot stores in the states where they were offering their services, but now Tesla has expanded the deal for Tesla-branded selling spaces at 800 of the retailer’s locations, the company told Bloomberg News.

According to the report, Tesla will be selling its solar rooftop installations and Powerwalls through the partnership and potentially even solar roof tiles at some point.

Tesla is also reportedly in discussion with Lowe’s for a similar deal.

Solar installations have gone significantly down since Tesla acquired SolarCity. The company says that it is focusing on more profitable projects and going from lease deals to straightforward sales instead of simply increasing deployment.

In Q3 2017, the last reported quarter, Tesla was down to 109 MW of solar power deployed – a 38% quarter-to-quarter drop. On the other hand, energy storage deployment reached 110 MWh –  12% quarter-to-quarter growth and 138% year-over-year growth.

Electrek’s Take

An expansion of the sales force could mean that Tesla is now getting ready to accelerate deployment again.

It would coincide with Panasonic ‘getting ready’ to start producing solar cells at Tesla Gigafactory 2 and Tesla starting the solar roof tile installation process with regular customers.

Solar modules produced with solar cells made by Panasonic will enable Tesla to escape the new solar tariffs and keep the cost of installation low with high-efficiency panels.

Now that Tesla integrated its energy products in its mobile app and in some stores, we could start to see more cross-promotion between its product lines.

I think we are going to start to see more “ultimate Tesla customers” who own the automaker’s vehicles, Powerwall, and solar array.

Solar and energy storage prices are highly dependent on your market (electricity cost, gov incentives, etc.) and your property. We suggest getting quotes from more than one installer to make sure you get the best energy solution for your place. UnderstandSolar is a great free service to link you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates for free.