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Tesla's Solar Roof Pricing Is Cheap Enough to Catch Fire
Tesla Inc. has begun taking $1,000 deposits for its remarkable solar roof tiles—to be delivered this summer at a price point that could expand the U.S. solar market.
Tesla will begin with production of two of the four styles it unveiled in October: a smooth glass and a textured glass tile. 1 Roofing a 2,000 square-foot home in New York state—with 40 percent coverage of active solar tiles and battery backup for night-time use—would cost about $50,000 after federal tax credits and generate $64,000 in energy over 30 years, according to Tesla's website calculator.
That's more expensive upfront than a typical roof, but less expensive than a typical roof with traditional solar and back-up batteries. The warranty is for the lifetime of your home.
"The pricing is better than I expected, better than everyone expected," said Hugh Bromley, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance who had been skeptical about the potential market impact of the new product. Tesla's cost for active solar tiles is about $42 per square foot, "significantly below" BNEF's prior estimate of $68 per square foot, Bromley said. Inactive tiles will cost $11 per square foot.
Also: Elon Musk has discovered a new passion in life — and it could be Tesla's best product yet
(Score: 2) by goodie on Sunday May 14 2017, @12:41PM (5 children)
I am sorry but unless those guys have found a way to make roofs extremely durable, 30 years is somewhere between 10 and 20 years too long... depending on where you live and given the increasing unpredictability and variability of weather conditions, this seems difficult to justify to me... I would almost think that having those in the desert while growing stuff in the shade they create underneath would make more sense.
I am not against the idea, but it has to make some sort of financial sense or people will never actually go for it. And unlike a car you can't drive around to show how cool you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 14 2017, @12:55PM
Well, tesla is providing an "infinity" guarantee on the tiles.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday May 14 2017, @01:16PM (1 child)
This was one of the things that seemed somewhat odd to me. There is a lifetime warranty on the roof, apparently for as long as the house stands the roof should hold, but it might only produce electricity for 30 years and the powerwall only has a 10 year warranty. So after 30ish years it more or less turns into a normal roof and in that time you would have swapped batteries about three times -- there might be new battery technology in that time it might change but from and based on todays numbers.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday May 14 2017, @09:41PM
Most existing solar installations come with a 20 year warranty, with the solar panels producing 80% of their rated output after 20 years. In real use, solar panels are proving to be more durable, with smaller losses in output over 20 years. So expecting 80% production after 30 years isn't unreasonable today.
Inverters are likely to fail during this time, but I think that the Tesla setups use a single inverter for both the battery and the panels, so a couple of inverter replacements during the lifetime are likely.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 14 2017, @02:34PM
They actually do claim that the solar roof tiles will last much longer than normal roof tiles.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 14 2017, @03:19PM
The tiles are glass or similar ceramic material.
Slate roofs (common in UK and Europe) last for 100 years or more. Now, they are being replaced with color-matched fake-slate which is cast concrete (or similar). This also has a long life and is lighter, easier on the roof structure than heavy flagstones. These roofs are very expensive. Families that own old houses with these roofs plan ahead and slowly build up a fund (across generations) to pay for the re-work.
I read a story in one of the Whole Earth Catalogs about an even longer plan -- giant oak roof beams for a university building were weakened from beetle holes but no one could figure out where to get the giant oak beams to rebuild. [googles], ah yes, here's the story,
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/oak-beams-new-college-oxford [atlasobscura.com]
Well worth a few minutes to see how things used to be done, in the good old days.