​On Tesla's first-quarter earnings call on Monday, CEO Elon Musk answered a question about why Tesla had jacked up the price of its Solar Roof by as much as 70% for customers awaiting installation.
"We did find that we basically made some significant mistakes in assessment of difficulty of certain roofs," he said, adding that the "complexity of roofs varies dramatically."
"Some roofs are literally two times or three times easier than other roofs. So you just can't have a one-size-fits-all situation," he said.

"If a roof has a lot of protuberances, or if the roof — sort of the core structure of the roof is rotted out or is not strong enough to hold the Solar Roof, then the cost can be double, sometimes three times what our initial quotes were," he added.
​Musk confirmed The Verge's reporting that customers who weren't happy with the new quote could get their deposits refunded.
He said that despite the price hikes, demand for the Solar Roof remained strong — though he did not clarify whether this was from new customers or from customers awaiting installation who had agreed to the higher prices.
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The company has packaged its Lithium Iron Phosphate cells, the same type used for the last five years in their electric vehicles, into a neat and convenient energy storage module called FreedomCOR.

Co-founder of Freedom Won, Antony English, exFreedomCORplains why this product is the next generation of storage for backup power, photo voltaic hybrid and off grid renewable energy systems. “The FreedomCOR range of energy storage modules contains a world leading Lithium Iron Phosphate battery that is capable of more than 5000 charge-discharge cycles of useful life, which will easily serve for over 13 years of daily cycling before the cells would need to be replaced. This ensures a much lower total life cycle cost than any other battery products on the market.” 

Operating the FreedomCOR with more life optimised settings can extend the service time even further. A typical cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) delivered over the life of the FreedomCOR is R1,60/kWh. This rate, when combined with rooftop PV can result in an average cost of less than R1,00/kWh spread out over a 20 year period.

FreedomCOR comes in a number of sizes to suit every application, starting with the FreedomCOR Home range for 5kWh up to 30kWh total capacity, with increments of 5kWh between models. The FreedomCOR Business range includes 40, 60 and 80kWh units. The FreedomCOR Industry range is available in much larger capacities to suit heavy demand applications.

Fellow co-founder Lizette Kriel explains, “The FreedomCOR Home is designed with a very slim profile to be fitted to a wall, which ensures there is no impact on usable space in the home. They have been so designed that they can be mounted on any suitable wall in the house, even outside – so long as it is in the shade.” The FreedomCOR Business is a compact floor mounted design.

The most popular model to date is the 10kWh unit because it offers sufficient energy to run the important loads in an average house for four to five hours through a typical bout of load shedding. This model sells for R57 170 excl VAT. For homeowners looking for more independence but still using the grid (when it is available) the 15, 20 and 25kWh units are better options. For the ultimate independence from the grid Freedom Won recommends the 30kWh model or even one of the FreedomCOR Business models, which have been designed to immunise office blocks and business operations from the troubling effects of load shedding. 

FreedomCOR can be connected to grid tie inverter charger combination units that support Lithium technology, such as those from Victron and the Radian series from Outback. FreedomCOR can also be integrated with a solar charge controller to receive power from a PV array.

Being modular, any number of units can be installed in parallel. This is especially beneficial for owners that decide in the future to add more storage capacity to gain more independence. 

The warranty offered is 10 years based on the operating regime being limited to a discharge maximum of 70%.

Freedom Won is taking orders for FreedomCOR with first deliveries planned in July 2015. To obtain further information and place your order for this game changing energy storage product contact Freedom Won at antony@freedomwon.co.za   082 256 7430