The Environment

BigRedBuster said:
I would love to have this on my house. 
 
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I remain extremely skeptical about the Tesla solar roof (or any integrated solar roof). It's not likely to make financial sense compare to separate roofing and solar panels as both of those are already inexpensive and have tons of experience in installation techniques.

 
RedDenver said:
I remain extremely skeptical about the Tesla solar roof (or any integrated solar roof). It's not likely to make financial sense compare to separate roofing and solar panels as both of those are already inexpensive and have tons of experience in installation techniques.
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You're talking about the panels that attach to the roof?  A couple things that make me more excited about this:

a) The entire roof is being used.  So, potentially, it would produce more electricity than just the individual panels.

b) This seems to look a heck of a lot nicer than the individual panels.

c) I have always wondered what happens with the old system when the roof needs reshingled.  Do you have to have the solar company come out and take them down and then reinstall them, which would add a decent amount of expense to re-roofing your house?  That said, obviously, at some point these would need to be replaced and it would be expensive.

The expense is what has prevented me from ever doing this with either system.  Hopefully, the technology keeps being improved and the expense keeps dropping.

 
BigRedBuster said:
You're talking about the panels that attach to the roof?  A couple things that make me more excited about this:

a) The entire roof is being used.  So, potentially, it would produce more electricity than just the individual panels.

b) This seems to look a heck of a lot nicer than the individual panels.

c) I have always wondered what happens with the old system when the roof needs reshingled.  Do you have to have the solar company come out and take them down and then reinstall them, which would add a decent amount of expense to re-roofing your house?  That said, obviously, at some point these would need to be replaced and it would be expensive.

The expense is what has prevented me from ever doing this with either system.  Hopefully, the technology keeps being improved and the expense keeps dropping.
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a) It's not actually using the entire roof - there are similar looking roof tiles that do not contain PV (Tesla calls them "architectural-grade steel panels" in their literature vs the "glass solar tiles"). It's a lot more expensive to use PV tiles on the entire roof, but that's possible with both the Tesla roof and with PV panels installed on top of a roof.

b) That's an opinion that's going to vary. I like the look of the Tesla roof too, but I also think PV panels on a roof look fine as well.

c) Yes. Re-roofing is an advantage of the Tesla roof, but solar installers will recommend replacing the roof when installing PV panels (which is exactly what you're doing when you install a Tesla roof), so I'm not sure it's much of an advantage. I'd go further and suggest using 30+ year roofing when installing solar panels on top of a roof (and longer would be better), so that the roof lasts as long as the panels.

Install PV is expensive, but prices have been dropping quickly for decades now. It's the installation and system design that have become the major cost driver. Not sure if Tesla's solar roof will matter much in that regard. Maybe they'll make some headway in making it easier to install, but I'm skeptical.

Total installed cost decline:

us-pv-turnkey-epc-pricing-by-market-segment.png


 
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