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I think it's interesting looking at it from the other end - as a homeowner, I can tell you that roofing is an expensive proposition. If this can be competitive

I think it's interesting looking at it from the other end - as a homeowner, I can tell you that roofing is an expensive proposition. If this can be competitive with traditional roofing and have a longer life expectancy, I'd buy in a heartbeat. It has the potential to displace thousands of tons of asphalt shingles per year with the equivalent of recyclable glass, which is pretty fantastic. The embodied energy of production for the tar hydrocarbons in current roofing materials are pretty nasty, and they don't just disappear when they wear out.

pfarnsworth 10y ago
I need to replace my roof and I've been quoted almost $20k. If these are within $5k of that price, then I will jump on it.
- sbov 10y ago
  From my experience, the price of installing solar on 1/4th of your roof is more expensive than installing a full, brand new roof. Beyond that, not all parts of the roof are created equal for solar - some will generated much less energy than others. E.g. a neighbor's tree blocks a fair portion of our roof from the sun. You can already get a $0 electricity bill without having full roof solar. I can't see it being anything but a waste of money for the practical consumer.
  - sliverstorm 10y ago
    It's already obvious this isn't targeted at your garden variety practical consumer. As the article points out, the demo'd roofing styles are all luxury roofing.
  - ant6n 10y ago
    Maybe they'll have solar and non-solar shingles that look the same, so you can have the solar shingles facing South, but the whole roof looks the same.
- notatoad 10y ago
  In the launch presentation they were saying that their pricing is competitive with standard roofing, plus the cost of electricity over the lifetime of the roof. And they're also talking about the increased durability, so that's a lot of electricity bills. the initial installation is definitely not going to be under $25k
- espadrine 10y ago
  I would expect something like triple the price of a normal roof, payable over the course of many months. I believe Mr Musk argues that, with the greatly lowered electric bill and more durable roof, the solar roof is a cheaper proposition after 20 years.
jxramos 10y ago
I've been contemplating the remaining lifespan of this multilayer roof that's been failing some of the carpentry on my mother's roof and wondering about going solar with the next roofing. I wonder how robust these things are for standing on and how they cut around the gas flues and plumbing ventilation pipes and what not. Maybe they deliver blank tiles with no cells on them to cut into odd shapes and what not. If the price difference is close I'd go this route easily.
- jack-r-abbit 10y ago
  It seems they'll almost have to have non-solar tiles that match. Currently, most people don't cover their entire roof with solar panels if they have sections that don't get enough sun to make panels there worth the extra cost.
sliverstorm 10y ago
Don't forget that rooftop solar panels reduce HVAC cooling needs in summer, and I would bet they also slash blackbody radiation, reducing the greenhouse problem. Absorbing the light ought to be as good as reflecting it. a 93-square-metre (1,000 sq ft) white roof will offset 10 tons of carbon dioxide over its 20-year lifetime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_surfaces_(geoengineering) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_surfaces_(geoengine...
- stcredzero 10y ago
  Except, unless you are powering a laser pointed offworld, most of that energy is going to end up in your local environment as heat. Or, you meant just your house's greenhouse problem? Running a heat pump or AC would do that.
  - sliverstorm 10y ago
    I'm not enough of an environmental physicist type to know for sure, but I think warm air (produced by various electronics) is preferable to a hot roof emitting blackbody radiation (which radiates at the wavelength that greenhouse gasses absorb).
    - gridspy 10y ago
      From a green house global warming perspective, we want as much light (and heat) reflected back into space as possible right now.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
  - icebraining 10y ago
    Yes, but the energy that gets converted into heat is replacing energy that would have come from some other source (fossil or not) that now doesn't have to be consumed.
  - deleted 10y ago
slfnflctd 10y ago
Roof replacement is quite a dirty business, in more than one sense of the term, and there are regions where whole roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less. Any dent that can be made in this problem is a good thing, and this looks to be quite a large dent indeed.
- anexprogrammer 10y ago
  > roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less Well I was going to be astonished, but Google and Wikipedia seem to tell me US roofs are a consumable and usually asphalt! Most UK roofs are tile, slate if older, and asphalt shingles reserved for sheds, garden structures etc. Tile lifespan should be 60+ years. As much as I like the improved aesthetics I don't see the tiles making much dent in the UK apart from new builds. For exising build the UK approach to solar has been to slap panels on a frame over the existing roof. Sadly there are no planning restrictions on bad taste. eg http://www.prescientpower.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/header_image/Domestic%20Solar%20PV%20panels.jpg http://www.prescientpower.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecac...
  - douche 10y ago
    I cannot fathom why anybody would build a new house and put asphalt shingles on it. Steel is far superior, and not much more expensive up-front, and likely cheaper over its lifetime. Most asphalt shingles only have a lifetime of 20-30 years, while steel will last double that easily. Also, I grew up in the Northeast. Snow slides right off steel roofing. It sticks to shingles, especially if you have any ice build-up. Unless you have a relatively steep roof pitch, you have to get up on the roof in the winter and clear the snow off. With steel, you wait for a warmer day, and it slides on its own.
  - lathiat 10y ago
    that's bananas, in Australia replacing a roof is really uncommon. much like the poster above in the UK it's usually either corrugated "tin" (actual metal varies) or Terracotta/concrete tiles. We don't really have any of the "shingle" type stuff. The "Tuscan" glass tile from the Tesla event is the closest looks to the most common tiles here.

pfarnsworth 10y ago

I need to replace my roof and I've been quoted almost $20k. If these are within $5k of that price, then I will jump on it.

sbov 10y ago
From my experience, the price of installing solar on 1/4th of your roof is more expensive than installing a full, brand new roof. Beyond that, not all parts of the roof are created equal for solar - some will generated much less energy than others. E.g. a neighbor's tree blocks a fair portion of our roof from the sun. You can already get a $0 electricity bill without having full roof solar. I can't see it being anything but a waste of money for the practical consumer.
- sliverstorm 10y ago
  It's already obvious this isn't targeted at your garden variety practical consumer. As the article points out, the demo'd roofing styles are all luxury roofing.
- ant6n 10y ago
  Maybe they'll have solar and non-solar shingles that look the same, so you can have the solar shingles facing South, but the whole roof looks the same.
notatoad 10y ago
In the launch presentation they were saying that their pricing is competitive with standard roofing, plus the cost of electricity over the lifetime of the roof. And they're also talking about the increased durability, so that's a lot of electricity bills. the initial installation is definitely not going to be under $25k
espadrine 10y ago
I would expect something like triple the price of a normal roof, payable over the course of many months. I believe Mr Musk argues that, with the greatly lowered electric bill and more durable roof, the solar roof is a cheaper proposition after 20 years.

jxramos 10y ago

I've been contemplating the remaining lifespan of this multilayer roof that's been failing some of the carpentry on my mother's roof and wondering about going solar with the next roofing. I wonder how robust these things are for standing on and how they cut around the gas flues and plumbing ventilation pipes and what not. Maybe they deliver blank tiles with no cells on them to cut into odd shapes and what not. If the price difference is close I'd go this route easily.

jack-r-abbit 10y ago
It seems they'll almost have to have non-solar tiles that match. Currently, most people don't cover their entire roof with solar panels if they have sections that don't get enough sun to make panels there worth the extra cost.

sliverstorm 10y ago

Don't forget that rooftop solar panels reduce HVAC cooling needs in summer, and I would bet they also slash blackbody radiation, reducing the greenhouse problem. Absorbing the light ought to be as good as reflecting it. a 93-square-metre (1,000 sq ft) white roof will offset 10 tons of carbon dioxide over its 20-year lifetime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_surfaces_(geoengineering) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_surfaces_(geoengine...

stcredzero 10y ago
Except, unless you are powering a laser pointed offworld, most of that energy is going to end up in your local environment as heat. Or, you meant just your house's greenhouse problem? Running a heat pump or AC would do that.
- sliverstorm 10y ago
  I'm not enough of an environmental physicist type to know for sure, but I think warm air (produced by various electronics) is preferable to a hot roof emitting blackbody radiation (which radiates at the wavelength that greenhouse gasses absorb).
  - gridspy 10y ago
    From a green house global warming perspective, we want as much light (and heat) reflected back into space as possible right now.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- icebraining 10y ago
  Yes, but the energy that gets converted into heat is replacing energy that would have come from some other source (fossil or not) that now doesn't have to be consumed.
- deleted 10y ago

slfnflctd 10y ago

Roof replacement is quite a dirty business, in more than one sense of the term, and there are regions where whole roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less. Any dent that can be made in this problem is a good thing, and this looks to be quite a large dent indeed.

anexprogrammer 10y ago
> roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less Well I was going to be astonished, but Google and Wikipedia seem to tell me US roofs are a consumable and usually asphalt! Most UK roofs are tile, slate if older, and asphalt shingles reserved for sheds, garden structures etc. Tile lifespan should be 60+ years. As much as I like the improved aesthetics I don't see the tiles making much dent in the UK apart from new builds. For exising build the UK approach to solar has been to slap panels on a frame over the existing roof. Sadly there are no planning restrictions on bad taste. eg http://www.prescientpower.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/header_image/Domestic%20Solar%20PV%20panels.jpg http://www.prescientpower.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecac...
- douche 10y ago
  I cannot fathom why anybody would build a new house and put asphalt shingles on it. Steel is far superior, and not much more expensive up-front, and likely cheaper over its lifetime. Most asphalt shingles only have a lifetime of 20-30 years, while steel will last double that easily. Also, I grew up in the Northeast. Snow slides right off steel roofing. It sticks to shingles, especially if you have any ice build-up. Unless you have a relatively steep roof pitch, you have to get up on the roof in the winter and clear the snow off. With steel, you wait for a warmer day, and it slides on its own.
- lathiat 10y ago
  that's bananas, in Australia replacing a roof is really uncommon. much like the poster above in the UK it's usually either corrugated "tin" (actual metal varies) or Terracotta/concrete tiles. We don't really have any of the "shingle" type stuff. The "Tuscan" glass tile from the Tesla event is the closest looks to the most common tiles here.