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SolarCity Plans To Release New 'Solar Roof' Product Next Year (computerworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes: SolarCity, the American provider of energy services recently purchased by Tesla Motors for $2.6 billion, is planning to produce a new "solar roof" product next year. Computerworld reports: "Five million roofs are replaced each year in the U.S., so instead of simply swapping out old shingles with new ones, why not turn the whole roof into a solar power generator that's integrated with your home's electrical utility? That is SolarCity's plan for a new product it expects to begin producing next year, according to statements made during the company's second-quarter earnings call last week. During the call, SolarCity Chief Technology Officer Peter Rive alluded to a new product that would be produced at the soon to open Buffalo, N.Y., solar panel manufacturing facility. Then SolarCity co-founder and Chairman Elon Musk interjected and said the product would be a solar roof, 'as opposed to a [solar] module on a roof.' The solar roof also has the advantage that it doesn't 'cannibalize' any existing SolarCity product, such as solar panels installed atop roofs, Musk said." "If your roof is nearing end of life, you definitely don't want to put solar panels on it because you're going to have to replace the roof," Musk said. "So there's a huge market segment that's kind of inaccessible to SolarCity. So, why not have a solar roof that's better in many other ways as well," he continued. "We don't want to turn over all our cards right now, but I think people are going to be really excited about what they'll see."
It would be all about ease of assembly.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Here in upstate NY, winters often mean that I need to get out our roof rake to pull snow off our roof. If I don't, ice dams form and then runoff from melting snow gets under our roof shingles and can get into our house. My questions for SolarCity would be: Would these solar shingles hold up to having a roof rake scraped across them? (It would be useless if I had to replace shingles every year due to roof raking damage.) Also, how would they handle snow melt getting under the shingles? Presumably, there will be wiring there. Would moisture under the shingles cause issues?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
As DIY. Solar panels are not wholly ridiculous any more as roofing material - at least for smaller roofs.
For example, I have a 5*20m roof.
Wholly replacing the skin of this with solar panels would cost around $6K. This is a large number - but not hugely much in context of the whole roof replacement. Optimising for cost per area, rather than cost per watt, and finding some nice way to fix with integral insulation, for example could greatly speed assembly of the roof.
These types of roofs have been around since 2009 or 10. Dow, corning, gaf and now a bunch of chinese imports. Dow is getting out of the market. They never caught on, but I am sure musk and his marketing machine will make all the difference.
Why smoke and mirrors? Care to explain...
I'd really like to start seeing houses built with solar instead of just a tack-on after the fact.
This will be the Uber of solar roofs. It's a game changer.
You are welcome on my lawn.
And all those reasons are why solar roofs don't exist everywhere else in the world.
Oh wait, they do.
I wonder how much of this solar build-out is due to an economic bubble in the industry. We've been looking into solar since we have a new roof, and the impression we've gotten both from SolarCity and a parade of local contractors is that they're all lining up before the (very lucrative) tax credits go away. Neither methods (leasing or paying for the system outright) seems like a particularly good deal. If you go the SolarCity route, they take your tax credit _and_ charge you monthly for your panels. If you go the local guy route, you pay (in my mind) hugely inflated prices, and they're trying to cover that up by saying "look at how much of a tax credit you're getting!" since it's a percentage of the price of the system.
I'm guessing all these local solar companies are going to be gone as soon as the tax credits dry up...there's no way they can continue selling systems for the prices they're charging. My impression is that these local solar companies are run by the typical hustler type who always has their eye on the next big money making opportunity, and will be on to the next one as soon as the business is inconvenient. It's too bad, because I'd definitely go for it if they would charge reasonable rates and not try to dupe idiotic homeowners who can't see past the tax credit carrot. In my mind, SolarCity is even more of a flat-out scam; they're the ones offering "no money out of pocket!" conversions, conveniently forgetting to mention that you're locked into a leasing contract with them. It's the perfect setup for them - the same mentality that goes into car leasing. Can't afford an S-class Mercedes? No problem, $999 a month, look, it's cheaper than a loan! Such a deal! Sign today!!
Bass turd had to wait. I just replaced my roof, half of which faces due south.
Seriously, it would be a great option if the price were comparable to, or within 30% of a regular asphalt shingle new roof.
Wake me when they're available in my city. zzzzZZZZ
Proverbs 21:19
Tesla has made an offer to purchase - the purchase has not been completed yet, and SolarCity is in a competitive offer phase where they can take other offers.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Why smoke and mirrors? Care to explain...
Old farte syndrome. Hates changes, and them kids keep walkin' on his lawn.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Sure, so long as they're subsidized enough they can be installed. That doesn't mean they're a good idea.
I'm all for this product. We need to replace our roof anyway. If the cost of the solar panel roofing is comparable to the cost of an asphalt roof, then its great. The only extra cost would probably be the battery and connections to the electric panel. hopefully those wouldn't be too high and would be offset by some sort of tax break.
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
my neighbour has a solar roof. He also has a dozen pigeons living under it. welcome to biohazards 101.
OTOH, I proposed this as a design project in college and am the same age as Musk. It's good to ask these questions. Years of scientific training taught me to be skeptical.
thousand regulatory bodies will attempt to outlaw it in some way,
This. Mostly to guaranty jobs to approved companies.
What's the price tag?
Dow made solar shingles until July of this year. They stopped because of low demand. Traditional rack-mounted solar offers better W/$. We'll see how the Elon Musk hype affects things though.
I'm interested in this. The main reason I haven't looked at installing solar panels (other than the fact that it is cloudy 9 months out of the year where I live) is that my roof is about 5 years from needing to be replaced.
Almost all modern cities have zoning codes, mostly for quakes and other reasons, which mean all roofs and circuitry can handle the addition of solar panels.
So if you have a house built since 1999, you can probably do this.
On a related issue, it appears the founders of Solar City have decided to forego their salaries this year.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I have Old farte syndrome.
OTOH, I proposed this as a design project in college and am the same age as Musk. It's good to ask these questions. Years of scientific training taught me to be skeptical.
I'm as skeptical as they come. I just find simple problems that already have solutions to be a tad dreary.
Who knows - perhaps I over-reacted, and sinned egregiously to th comment.
But after a while, it all begins to sound like people deciding that EV's are a non-starter because how you gonna charge them? - and yet Alaska has electrical outlets at parking meters in towns to keep petrofueled cars engine blocks warmed. Or that the batteries in the Tesla are incapable of handing cold weather, and will run their power down more quickly - all the while ignoring all of the gyrations needed to go through to keep petrofueld vehicles in shape at those same temperatures and that they suck up a lot more fuel in the winter because the wintermix fuel contains butanol which has a higher vapor pressure but lower energy content per liter, and they blame the combined drop 100 percent on ethanol. Or that solar cells self distruct the moment their warranty goes out, or that every single part of a windmill farm must be replaced every 20 years.
A healthy sketicism toward utter bullshit is very healthy.
But hey! I could be wrong about all of the slash dotters sounding like they miss the horse and buggy days.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If too many people install solar roofs because the subsidies make them economically attractive, pretty soon we'll have solar dimming due to over-harvesting.
Then we'll all have to go on emergency Daylight Savings Time, even Arizona, to avoid decreased farm output and the attendant mass starvation.
It is much more responsible to incentivize people to burn old, unused dinosaurs for warmth, seeing as they're a constantly replenished, renewable resource.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff