Why Tesla's New Solar Roof Tiles and Home Battery Are Such a Big Deal (techcrunch.com)

On October 28th, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk unveiled the residential "solar roof," consisting of glass roof tiles with integrated solar panels. Not only are they more durable than traditional roof panels, but they offer efficiency that is 98 percent as good as traditional, photovoltaic panels. The company also announced the Powerwall 2, a home battery that can store 14 kWh of energy, with a 5 kW continuous power draw, and 7 kW peak. It's designed to store the energy from the solar roof during day to power your home at night. Darrell Etherington via TechCrunch explains why these solar roof tiles are such a big deal: It's easy to dismiss the aesthetic import of how Tesla's tiles look, but it's actually important, and a real consideration for homeowners looking to build new homes or revamp their existing ones. The appearance of the tiles, which come in four distinct flavors (Textured Glass, Slate Glass, Tuscan Glass and Smooth Glass) is going to be a core consideration for prospective buyers, especially those at the top end of the addressable market with the disposable income available to do everything they can to ensure their home looks as good as it possibly can. As with other kinds of technologies that are looking to make the leap from outlier oddity to mainstream mainstay, solar has a hurdle to leap in terms of customer perception. Existing solar designs, and even so-called attempts to make them more consistent with traditional offerings like the above-mentioned Dow Chemical project, leave a lot to be desired in terms of creating something that can be broadly described as good-looking. Tesla has been referred to as the Apple of the automotive world by more than a few analysts and members of the media, and if there's one thing Apple does well, it's capitalize on the so-called -- halo effect. This is the phenomenon whereby customers of one of its lines of business are likely to become customers of some of the others; iPhone buyers tend to often go on to own a Mac, for instance. For Tesla, this represents an opportunity to jump-start its home solar business (which it'll take on in earnest provided its planned acquisition of SolarCity goes through) through the knock-on effects of its brisk Tesla EV sales, including the tremendous pre-order interest for the Model 3. Tesla's solar tiles claim to be able to power a standard home, and provide spare power via the new Powerwall 2 battery in case of inclement weather or other outages. Musk says that the overall cost will still be less than installing a regular old roof and paying the electric company for power from conventional sources. But Musk's claims about the new benefits of the new solutions don't end there. Tesla's tiles will actually be more resilient than traditional roofing materials, including terra-cotta, clay and slate tiles. Solar roofing, Powerwall and Tesla cars taken together represent a new kind of ecosystem in consumer tech, one that carries a promise of self-sufficiency in addition to ecological benefits. Tesla has already tipped its hand with respect to how it intends to make vehicle ownership a revenue generator for its drivers, rather than a cost center.

Comments

Where I live this might be great, but...

[Streetlight]

I live in Colorado Springs, reported to be the second best place in the country for photovoltaic applications with 320 days of sunshine per year with moderate winter weather. However, we have one problem and that's hail propelled at 40 to 60 MPH (or greater speeds) down on roofs. It's great for the roofing businesses, but for glass roofs, likely not so good. I'm not talking about those little golf ball hail stones but hail stones the size of tennis balls building piles of hail two feet deep. An expensive glass roof should survive such a storm. I want to see the test results for such an event.

Re:Where I live this might be great, but...

[I'm New Around Here]

I would like to see the energy output from that glass tile before and after being hit. Just because the glass is bound up in some layers, preventing it from flying all over the place, does not mean it isn't broken and useless. Ever see a sheet of tempered glass that shatters, but stays in place?

Additionally, I would like to see his test done with a dozen weights being dropped, since that is what the OP is describing as a common occurrence in his location.

Re:I only wish

[Locke2005]

I'm sure they are strong enough to walk on. I have a different worry: on a steep roof, they would be a lot more slippery than asphalt shingles, especially here in the northwest where is rain so much that moss grows on our roofs! Yes, it seems like you would need to pressure wash them several times a year to keep dirt from lowering their efficiency, so you would spend a lot more time cleaning off your roof. Asphalt tile, you basically pay someone $300 to pressure wash the roof every 8 years.