Tesla Cuts Cost of Solar Panels and Solar Roof with New $500 Referral Bonus
While Tesla is currently best known for its electric cars, the company provides solar power systems to consumers as well. In fact, they do this at one of the lowest prices in the industry – currently about $2.01/watt before incentives. This week, Tesla quietly started offering a new incentive to those considering the purchase of a Tesla solar panel or solar roof system: $500 cash back.
To take advantage of this offer, you need a Tesla referral code or link – that same code you use to get free supercharging on a Tesla car purchase. Any current Tesla car owner or Tesla solar owner can provide you with the code or link – just ask them. If you need one, feel free to use mine:
Tesla Referral Link <– use this for a cash bonus on your Tesla solar purchase
If ordering by phone or chat, you can use Tesla referral code: christopher55570
Tesla offers solar power systems at some of the lowest prices in the industry. Photo courtesy of Tesla, 2021.
The referral code discount for solar is not new, but before last week, the incentive was just $100, so Tesla just increased that by five times. Current Tesla owners who refer new buyers to Tesla solar also get a $500 incentive, an increase from the previous $400 bounty. The $500 payment is sent to buyer and referrer after the solar power system has been successfully installed at the new customer’s residence.
As our own Johnna Crider wrote, Tesla Solar has been becoming more affordable. Tesla recently dropped the interest rate from 5.99% to 0.99% (10 year term) for those who prefer to finance their solar purchase. This saves customers thousands of dollars in interest over the term of the loan. And because it is a purchase, not a rental or lease, the customer is eligible for any state or federal incentives.
As for why Tesla Solar is so much cheaper than the competition, our editor Zach Shahan wrote about this recently after an exchange with Elon Musk over Twitter. As Elon explained, the cost of materials and installation is not super-high. The reason most competitors charge more is that they have the overhead of salespeople. Just as Tesla eliminated the need for car salespeople and dealerships by taking the ordering and buying process online, they’ve done the same for solar systems. Also, by providing a limited number of configurations (small, medium and large systems) the company has eliminated much of the manual effort involved in putting together a system.
When Tesla acquired Solar City’s solar business in 2016, some were skeptical about the deal, and some thought it made perfect sense. For Elon Musk, the acquisition was a no-brainer: if you’re trying to wean the world from its fossil fuel addiction, you can’t just fix the transportation sector by displacing gas-powered cars with electric ones, you have to address the consumer power market too. And so Tesla has been installing solar power systems, residential batteries and massive commercial battery power systems in an effort to eliminate fossil fuels as the primary source of electrical power.
Is there a catch to signing up for Tesla solar? Sort of. Musk believes that solar power systems are much less valuable without battery storage. So at this point, you cannot purchase a solar panel system or solar roof from Tesla without one or more of Tesla’s PowerWall batteries. And these batteries aren’t exactly cheap ($10,500 at publication time). The benefits or having battery storage in your solar system are huge: you can shift your power usage from peak levels to off-peak levels, reducing your impact on the grid and saving you money. You also have emergency back-up power in the result of a blackout or grid failure – something we’ve been seeing more frequently with super storms and the impact of climate change. But the fact remains that these batteries do increase the cost of a system, and this should be considered as you make your own choice about what type of solar power system to install at your own home.
Read more about the Tesla referral program or about Tesla solar.
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Solar panel giant Qcells announced today that it’s temporarily furloughing 1,000 US workers – 25% of its workforce – and reducing pay and shifts at its factories in northeast Georgia due to supply chain delays caused by US Customs.
Qcells furloughs 1,000 workers
The supply chain delays are hindering the company’s ability to import components to build its solar panels. This has resulted in Qcells’ two factories in Cartersville and Dalton being unable to operate at full capacity for several months.
Qcells spokeswoman Marta Stoepker shared the following statement in an exclusive with Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta:
The company says the furloughed workers, who were notified this afternoon, will retain full benefits and won’t be laid off. However, Qcells will no longer be using staffing agency employees in Georgia “at this time.”
As Qcells introduced new supply chains to support its growing solar panel manufacturing facilities in Georgia, the company was recently forced to scale back production while our shipments into the US were delayed in the customs clearance process.
Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, today we shared with our employees that HR actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels.
Stoepker said it expects to bring the furloughed workers back “in the coming weeks and months.” She continued:
Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains. We will soon be back on track with the full force of our Georgia team delivering American-made energy to communities around the country.
Electrek’s Take
In January 2023, the Seoul-headquartered Qcells announced it would invest more than $2.5 billion to build a solar supply chain in Georgia – the largest-ever investment in clean energy manufacturing in the US to date. That included expanding the Dalton solar factory and building a fully integrated solar supply chain factory in Cartersville, Georgia, that will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels.
It’s not quite there yet, because that takes time. In the meantime, it’s being penalized by Customs. The US government under Trump says it’s keen on boosting domestic manufacturing. Why would it work against a company that’s onshoring an entire solar supply chain, including recycling?
Dalton and Cartersville employ nearly 4,000 people. Its total output will reach 8.4 GW of solar production capacity per year, which is equivalent to nearly 46,000 panels per day – enough to power approximately 1.3 million homes annually.
It’s ludicrous that it has been forced to furlough a quarter of its workforce due to the ineptness of the Trump administration’s US Customs policies. This is right up there with the ICE arrests at Hyundai’s plant in Georgia. Bravo.
Read more: Georgia gives US solar panel manufacturing a big boost with a new factory
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The breakthrough EV batteries Toyota says will double driving range and cut charging times are facing another setback. The company is once again delaying plans for a new battery plant in Japan.
Why is Toyota delaying its EV battery plant this time?
Earlier this year, Toyota bought a 280,000-square-meter plot of land in Fukuoka, Japan, where it planned to build a plant to produce the more advanced EV batteries.
A location agreement was expected to be signed by April, but Toyota pushed back construction by several months, blaming slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.
The agreement was expected to be finalized this Fall, but that will no longer be the case. According to Nikkei, Toyota is delaying the EV battery plant for the second time. Toyota will review and adjust plans over the next year.
Fukuoka governor, Seitaro Hattori, confirmed the news with reporters on Friday following a meeting with Toyota’s president, Koji Sato. Hattori also shut down claims that Toyota was planning to scrap the battery plant altogether.
Toyota again blamed slowing EV demand for the delay. The decision comes despite Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota’s Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center, confirming at the Japan Mobility Show just last week that it’s “sticking on the schedule” to introduce its first solid-state battery-powered EV by 2028.
Last month, Toyota said it aimed to “achieve the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs” after securing a partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to mass-produce them. It’s also working with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu.
The company recently revealed a solid-state battery pack prototype that it claims can deliver 747 miles (1,200 km) range and 10-minute fast charging, but will we ever see it actually in production?
Electrek’s Take
Toyota has been making empty promises about EV batteries for almost a decade now. It initially planned to introduce solid-state EV batteries in 2020, then pushed it to 2023, then 2026, and now it’s saying it will be around 2028.
Mass production is likely closer to the end of the decade, if Toyota doesn’t delay it again. While it’s blaming the slowing demand, global EV sales are still on the rise. According to Rho Motion, global EV sales topped 2 million for the first time in a single month in September 2025. Through the first nine months of the year, EV sales are up 26% compared to the same period in 2024.
Even with the US ending the $7,500 federal tax credit and other policies designed to promote electric vehicles, global adoption will continue building momentum over the next few years.
Is it a demand issue, or is Toyota just looking for another excuse? With rivals like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW, and Honda advancing next-gen EV batteries, Toyota will only fall further behind if it continues delaying key projects.
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In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss how Tesla is now Elon’s after the shareholders’ meeting, Xpeng going all-in on AI, Rivian’s earnings, and more.
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