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Elon Musk: Tesla's Solar Roof Will Cost Less Than a Traditional Roof (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: After Tesla shareholders approved the acquisition of SolarCity, the new company is now an unequivocal sun-to-vehicle energy firm. And Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk didn't take long to make his first big announcement as head of this new enterprise. Minutes after shareholders approved the deal -- about 85 percent of them voted yes -- Musk told the crowd that he had just returned from a meeting with his new solar engineering team. Tesla's new solar roof product, he proclaimed, will actually cost less to manufacture and install than a traditional roof -- even before savings from the power bill. "Electricity," Musk said, "is just a bonus." If Musk's claims prove true, this could be a real turning point in the evolution of solar power. The rooftop shingles he unveiled just a few weeks ago are something to behold: They're made of textured glass and are virtually indistinguishable from high-end roofing products. They also transform light into power for your home and your electric car. "So the basic proposition will be: Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, lasts twice as long, costs less and -- by the way -- generates electricity?" Musk said. "Why would you get anything else?" Much of the cost savings Musk is anticipating comes from shipping the materials. Traditional roofing materials are brittle, heavy, and bulky. Shipping costs are high, as is the quantity lost to breakage. The new tempered-glass roof tiles, engineered in Tesla's new automotive and solar glass division, weigh as little as a fifth of current products and are considerably easier to ship, Musk said.
I keep forgetting that there are places in the world that aren't California. Out there, "traditional roofing materials" are asphalt shingles, or sometimes cedar shakes, neither of which is bulky or brittle.
See that "Preview" button?
"Ohh how about a minor heating element that can be turned on in the winter to help de-ice/snow roofs"
It has this.
Ydco co
They've shown video of dropping calibrated weights on 3 other roofing materials as well as this new product, and the other 3 failed (read: shattered) where this solar shingle thing did not. They claim it is almost as strong as steel.
There is a version that has electric resistive warmers in it for melting snow - remember that SolarCity installs panels in New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, which are no strangers to snow.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
" It would be nice if there were cheaper, non-PV versions to cover the portions of my roof that aren't going to generate appreciable power"
Elon said that's exactly what they'll do. Not all the panels will have cells, if not needed
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Uhhhh, how much glass is used for horizontal (or horizontal-ish) surfaces?
Quite a lot. Open up your refrigerator and chances are you'll see a rather large load bearing glass surface. Look at atriums of commercial buildings with glass roofs. Look at greenhouses. Glass table tops. Check out the sunroofs in cars. There are glass walkways.
Horizontal glass surfaces are all over the place if you actually bother to look for them.