Tesla investors cheered the electric automaker’s third-quarter earnings results last week after the company posted a surprise profit, which kept the bears at bay for the time being. While electric cars are their bread and butter product, the company’s solar sales are also experiencing exponential growth, which could bode well for the Invesco Solar ETF (NYSEArca: TAN).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk outlined the solar sales goal in the forthcoming months during a conference call.
“I think within the next several months we should be well past 1,000 roofs a week,” said Musk last Friday. “That’s our goal.” Sales, he said, “will grow like kelp on steroids. Long term, obviously we want to do 10,000 roofs a week. “
“The goal is to have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof, generate electricity, last longer, have better insulation and have a lower installed cost than the price of a roof plus the price of electricity,” Musk said, during the earnings call. “The solar-glass roof is not going to make financial sense for somebody who has a relatively new roof, because this is itself a roof that has integrated solar power generation. We are doing installations as fast as we possibly can, starting in the next few weeks.”
Tesla just recently launched the third version of its solar panel, which is specifically designed for residential use. The panels themselves are made to blend in with an existing roof, while still providing the benefits of solar power.
While the panels themselves are still a work in progress, Musk sees them as a prime revenue generator.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Musk said. “It’s really: Do you want something that prints money? And if it doesn’t print money, we’ll fix it or take it back.”
TAN, which started back in 2008, seeks to track the investment results of the MAC Global Solar Energy Index, which is designed to provide exposure to companies listed on exchanges in developed markets that derive a significant amount of their revenues from the following business segments of the solar industry: solar power equipment producers including ancillary or enabling products.
TAN’s Top 10 Holdings and weighting as of June 30:
- First Solar: 9.9%
- SolarEdge Technologies: 8.51%
- Enphase Energy: 6.35%
- Xinyi Solar Holdings: 6.35%
- Sunrun: 6.33%
- SunPower: 5.05%
- Hannon Armstrong: 4.39%
- Canadian Solar: 4.38%
- Scatec Solar: 3.99%
- Atlantic Yield: 3.91%
Based on Yahoo! Finance performance numbers, TAN is up 55.56% YTD and 59.66% within the past year.
