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posted by martyb on Sunday October 30 2016, @03:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the good-ideas-rise-to-the-top dept.

SolarCity has unveiled a line of solar roof tiles:

[Elon] Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors and chairman of SolarCity, showcased a line of high-design solar roof tiles that would replace clunky solar panels and tie into an upgraded version of the Tesla wall-mounted battery for those times when the sun doesn't shine. The glass solar shingles resemble French slate, Tuscan barrel tile or more conventional roofing materials with a textured or smooth surface. "The key is to make solar look good," Musk said during the product introduction staged on the old set of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" series, where he had re-roofed four of the Wisteria Lane houses. "If this is done right, all roofs will have solar."

[...] Price and styling will likely prove critical for the industry in attracting customers as current solar power owners have seen some of the benefits of self-generating electricity erode. Utility companies have complained that solar owners haven't been paying their share of the cost to maintain the network of power lines, substations, transformers and power plants that make up the electric grid. Regulators across the country have added costs to solar power owners such as higher rate tiers and mandatory fees that have increased per-household costs by as much as $10 to $20 a month in California, Del Chiaro said.

[...] A 2014 survey by home-solar power provider Lumeta found that slightly under a third of respondents considered appearance very or extremely important, while slightly over a third said the look was slightly important or not important at all. "People spend a lot of time trying to create an attractive home," said Andy Ogden, chairman of the industrial design graduate program at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. "They don't want funny glass boxes stuck on one side of their roof." Making solar roofs more attractive, he said, "increases the number of people who will install solar."

The quartz glass tiles supposedly have 2-3 times the longevity of asphalt tiles. A Powerwall 2 battery with 14 kWh capacity was also unveiled.

Has Musk gone too far?


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:06PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:06PM (#420536) Journal
    Even if SolarCity won't sell you a roof, I imagine it won't be hard to find someone who will. It looks here like the two big innovations are a durable roofing material and solar cells that look more like normal roofing material. One of the things about renting roofs, is that they don't have to compete with their old roofs from ten years ago. They can take it back in and destroy it rather than having to worry about a secondary market in used roofing materials. I don't like it, but it works.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @06:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @06:27PM (#420587)

    > They can take it back in and destroy it rather than having to worry about a secondary market in used roofing materials. I don't like it, but it works.

    No, that isn't how it works at all. But for you, facts have never really been an obstacle, have they?

    The only time the a company like solarcity would remove equipment is if things have gone completely off the rails. Normally, once the power purchase agreement (PPA) is fulfilled, the equipment becomes the property of the homeowner. If the home is sold, the PPA is part of the terms of the sale the buyer agrees to, much like an easement. If the equipment fails, solarcity is required to repair it under the terms of the PPA. If the homeowner renegs and simply stops paying the PPA, the first response is a lien. Its only after all other options have been exhausted that removal would be considered because that's a losing proposition for everyone involved.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:11PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:11PM (#420670) Journal

      No, that isn't how it works at all. But for you, facts have never really been an obstacle, have they?

      You do realize that recycling of building materials is a thing, right?

      No, that isn't how it works at all. But for you, facts have never really been an obstacle, have they?

      And buildings routinely failed or are condemned before the duration of a PPA would expire.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:29PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:29PM (#420678)

        > You do realize that recycling of building materials is a thing, right?

        Seriously, have you been diagnosed with autism?
        Or is it just a combination of ego-maniacal narcissism and stupidity?

        > And buildings routinely failed or are condemned before the duration of a PPA would expire.

        'Routinely?' Dude, you must live in the shittiest neighborhood in the country.
        Or your are just stupid as fuck.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday October 31 2016, @12:56AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 31 2016, @12:56AM (#420727) Journal

          'Routinely?' Dude, you must live in the shittiest neighborhood in the country.

          I am thinking of the US, dude. And really, what's going to happen when someone's new suburb gets condemned due to flood, earthquake, or nearby Superfund site? What happens when a house gets significant fire damage? In the past, the houses would get leveled and the scavengers would pick over the houses for anything remotely useful and cart it off. That would, of course, including any still working solar power systems.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @05:07AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @05:07AM (#420789)

            Careful when doing that. A scrapper got electrocuted here tearing the panels off of a roof. Apparently, he didn't realize that they generate power all the time and got nailed when cutting through one of the wires. IIRC, the isolation switch was set to off and the electric meter replaced with a dummy, so he probably thought he was safe.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @07:28PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @07:28PM (#421011)

              they generate power all the time

              A deadly lesson for that scrapper! For the rest of us, it's the best thing about solar power.