(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. is installing far less solar power than its SolarCity unit did as an independent company.
Tesla installed 109 megawatts of energy-generation systems in the third quarter, according to a statement Wednesday from the Palo Alto, California-based company. That's down from the 187 megawatts of panels that SolarCity deployed in the same period last year, its final quarter before it was acquired.
“The lower deployments are in large part a result of deliberately de-emphasizing commercial and industrial solar-energy projects with low profit and limited cash generation,” Tesla said in the statement.
Year-over-year installation rates have been down since the $2 billion deal closed in November 2016. Tesla added 150 megawatts in the first quarter, compared with the 214 megawatts SolarCity installed a year earlier. And the second-quarter total of 176 megawatts fell short of SolarCity's 201 megawatts in 2016.
There was a positive in the solar figures: the company is selling more systems, meeting an oft-stated goal. About 46 percent of the residential systems installed last quarter were sold, rather than leased. Tesla said that's up from 13 percent a year earlier. It expects cash sales to surpass 50 percent this quarter, and said installations of its textured-glass solar roofs will “ramp slowly” as production moves to its factory in Buffalo, New York.
Only a handful of solar roofs are known to be in operation, including two at the homes of founder Elon Musk and Chief Technology Officer J.B. Straubel.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Eckhouse in New York at beckhouse@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Will Wade, Joe Carroll
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