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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.
...10 times more expensive to buy for the end users.
When the solar cells dropped in price from the hefty China manufacturing of these, people in Sweden tried to purchase a lot of these, then a heftyn anti-dumping 60% import tax "to protect other producers of panels" where quickly introduced to stop this "green madness", hah...
But good on him for trying, now if the governments of the worlds would like to dance to that tune, we'd all be in the green, but I can pretty much promise you, the ones earning $$$ on something else won't have it!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
They have some impressive impact test videos. Tempered glass is amazingly tough. Now, if you manage to break it, it breaks in its entirity (aka, an entire shingle), usually into little bits. But that break takes a pretty severe impact.
Time will tell what the total cost is in the real world, of course. My questions are more concerning how fast real-world installs go, aka what the labour costs are like.
Wingus, Dingus! Listen up!
Agreed, I still want to find out how this product works in places like Warren Ohio, Joplin, Missouri, Greensburg Kanasas (Most Damaging Tornadoes I can think of off the top of my head) Where tornadoes while not "common" also aren't "rare" and as such roofs need to be able to sustain pre-tornado weather (including hail) at least a few times a year.
Traditional shingles set a very very low bar.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it also seems silly to put these on north-facing or shaded roofs. 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. A consistent appearance in the roof, but only pay for the PV where it makes sense.
I guess maybe having two different versions would potentially make both more expensive.
"Open the pod by doors, Hal" > "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" sudo "Open the pod bay doors, Hal" > alright
The person asking if it's going to be energy positive has a point - it probably wouldn't be to melt snow in a heavy fall, but if you're melting the bottom layer then hopefully the rest will slide off. You probably need to be quite careful in gutter design to make that work though.
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Your comment alludes to a more fundamental question of whether home owners could install these shingles themselves. While I would certainly rather pay someone to install a new roof, in the rural area I grew up in that was very rare. Even if you didn't have the skills you had a neighbor who could help. Very few people would "waste their money" paying someone else to do their home maintenance.
For people more willing to spend their time than money (or who only have excess time not money) the ability to install it yourself is a huge part of the cost function.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Not going to be that cheap, having a solar cell built in.
Musk is comparing his roofing to ceramic tile. Not steal shingles, much less asphalt composite shingles (the last is fair, they have shit durability).
Roofs like ceramic tile and slate (in 2016) are architectural elements, not a type that is chosen economically. This will start in botique construction, I bet you see it on northern exposures at high latitudes (where the solar cells are useless).
I'm actually curious to see how they do the interconnect. If you need an electrician soldering each tile to a bus, it's a non-starter. I'm sure it's not that fucked up, but if you just have them 'autoattach' when nailed down you could get welding voltages/amperages on the roof while installing. How do they do edges, valleys and ridges (always the tricky parts of roofing). Also curious if he has lower cost inactive but matching tiles for northern exposures.
Tweaker roofers will just do these jobs at night and continue not sleeping. They will also invent insane contraptions with these, welders, solar vapourizers etc.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'