No Tesla for you!

If you didn't know, these days, pretty much all new construction in California must include solar. Regardless of whether it's a primary or secondary home on a property. My primary home has solar, so I thought I would get an exception, but nope, had to put solar panels on the accessory dwelling unit ("ADU") as well. Which is okay: if anyone were to help the Earth, it must be us, Californians.

My contractor did an excellent job researching the possibilities and gave me three options in different price categories (from about $8K to $12K or so, don't remember exactly now). If I had PG&E, I definitely would've gone with the biggest, most efficient option, but since I have SMUD for electrical service (SMUD rates are more reasonable compared to PG&E), I chose the most economical route.

And then I saw this post: Tesla Solar 20% Permanent Price Reduction. Basically, for the same (under $10K) price point, Tesla offered about twice the capacity of what I was planning to get. It was worth checking out, so I paid the $100 deposit and submitted the application. A few weeks passed and after multiple email exchanges, I was told that since my primary residence already has solar, Tesla would not approve installing panels on the ADU. The official reply said:

"Second systems are not allowed due to the added costs of retrofitting the original system to be rapid shutdown compliant. The home looks to be  built in 2009 and the existing system can be seen from satellite imagery. It is assumed that the existing system was installed when the home was constructed and is not rapid shutdown compliant. It must be to install in Sacramento County and with SMUD."

Given that Tesla hardly makes any money on smaller units, I see where they are coming from, but at the very least, it would be nice to know about this limitation during an application phase, not after waiting a month and sending repeated requests to get the status. I am sure a company trying to send a man to Mars can do that.

P.S. I got the $100 deposit back.

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