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.
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(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.