Tesla Ramps Up Solar Tile Roof Installations In US, Eyes China and Europe Expansion (techcrunch.com) 49
According to CEO Elon Musk, Tesla appears to be ramping up installations of its solar tile roofs in the San Francisco Bay area, with plans to expand to Europe and China in the not too distant future. TechCrunch reports: The solar tile roof, which Tesla calls Solarglass, is being produced at the company's factory in Buffalo, N.Y. Musk announced in one of the tweets plans to host a "company talk" in April at the Buffalo factory, an event that will include media and customer tours of the facility. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment seeking more information about Solarglass, including how many installations have been made to date.
Four months ago, Musk said the company would begin installations in the "coming weeks" and that it hopes to ramp production to as many as 1,000 new roofs per week. In an earnings call last October, Musk suggested that the tiles were ready for a widespread deployment, noting that "version three is finally ready for the big time." The solar tile roof will initially be offered in textured black, but Musk reiterated Monday plans to offer other color and finish variants "hopefully later this year."
Four months ago, Musk said the company would begin installations in the "coming weeks" and that it hopes to ramp production to as many as 1,000 new roofs per week. In an earnings call last October, Musk suggested that the tiles were ready for a widespread deployment, noting that "version three is finally ready for the big time." The solar tile roof will initially be offered in textured black, but Musk reiterated Monday plans to offer other color and finish variants "hopefully later this year."
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"I know your life is filled with pure rainbows and unicorns, but that's not how things work in China. Their economy is going to crash from all the deaths and having all the workers locked up in their flats for months. It's going to take a few years to recover. "
You know that they have 1.5 billion other people to replace them?
And putting people in camps where they can't leave is kind of their thing, they are good at it.
too slick for me (Score:5, Insightful)
We need a new roof on our house, and I looked at Tesla's offering. The web site is hard to navigate, there's lots of fluff without hard content, and critical details are impossible to obtain without given them detailed contact information. It reeked of rip-off.
Now, it might just well be the case that the company has a fine product and stands by it, but they act initially like used car salesmen, making my caveat emptor alarm bells go off pretty loudly. The other roofing companies we've dealt with provided plenty of information on their web sites, some even give a basic quote up-front before you talk to them (at which point, naturally, the quote gets refined, and then formalized once they see your roof). But when a company makes details hard to find on their web site, and hides critical information behind a contact form? No thank you; when I'm spending in the range of $50k for contract work, I prefer to deal with a company that acts like it wants to earn my business, proudly states it offers lifetime warranty, and provides a copy of the details on-line.
Wait for presentation (Score:3, Informative)
What critical details are you looking for?
They do have solar glass roof roof specs if you keep scrolling down...
I agree the website is light on info but there's been enough other stuff posted about it, that I think you could get most what you are looking for.
I am considering this but the roof plus batteries is pretty expensive, even if you factor in the return from energy production.
Apparently they are just about to launch some V3 of the product so they will probably have a ton of details at that presentati
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Which isn't on *their* page why?
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Yes, totally agree. Should have it available on some spec sheet, but at this point I figure they will update the whole thing after the presentation.
Until now they've had a very limited rollout and so installations may have varied as they figure things out...
Re: too slick for me (Score:1)
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Aren't regular PV panels just PV with glass glued over top?
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Re:too slick for me (Score:4, Informative)
They may not actually want your business. Yet.
Early adopters do not have a pragmatic psychology. They are very novelty-driven and, God bless 'em, tolerant of quirks and even downright functional defects if they get what they want.
Now from what I've heard, a Tesla solar roof installation has an eye-popping price. They may be looking more for real bleeding edge early adopters willing to shell out a hefty premium to be the first person they know that has a thing. Eventually they'll want to sell to people like you, but for now even dealing with your questions could be a waste of time for them.
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That would be 18million per year.
With a population around 450million that does not sound plausible.
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Our population is about 330 million [census.gov], and the housing starts are about 1.6 million per year [stlouisfed.org]. So Musk is targeting about 3% of the market. A pretty small segment.
And at the prices quoted [electrek.co] for the Solarglass roof, it's triple or quadruple the price [roofingcalc.com] of equivalent 50 year roofing systems. That would mean you'd spend over $1500 extra per year (on 50 years) for that solar roof. Many will talk about the savings in electricity - but will the solar roof actually last all 50 years, will the electronics needed do so
Re:too slick for me (Score:4, Informative)
Now from what I've heard, a Tesla solar roof installation has an eye-popping price.
You can get an estimate and put down a deposit on the website. For my house, it's over $30,000, and over $40,000 with 3 powerwalls.
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They may not actually want your business. Yet.
Yes, I remember that from Business 101 - turn away customers and make your products lack of viability look like a deliberate strategy... right until you run out of investor's money. Then raise another round.
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Actually having started and run a business, I can state unequivocally that there are customers you don't want to have, and customers you aren't ready for yet.
They do teach you about this in business classes -- it's called "market segmentation".
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There are other companies offering solar roof tiles with more experience, both with the solar and with roofing. It's probably worth at least getting some quotes from them too.
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We need a new roof on our house, and I looked at Tesla's offering. The web site is hard to navigate, there's lots of fluff without hard content, and critical details are impossible to obtain without given them detailed contact information.
Buddy... You don't need facts, renewables are all about emotion. Just think about how the Solar Roof make you feel or what does renewable electricity smell like. Just believe.
U.S. Carbon Emissions Fell in 2019 (Score:2, Interesting)
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You could please him.
By having had less emissions than before, and trying not to incorrectly show off about how emissions have dropped "since the Paris accord".
You know... like... actually having done something that the rest of the world agreed to do voluntarily.
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Ah, you mean the worst offender by far (factor 2x on the next one) has not gotten even worse? Something to be truly proud about!
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And U.S.'s emissions are not even close to the worst
The US represents 13.77% of the world emissions [slashdot.org] and has twice the emissions per capita as China [wikimedia.org]. This combination of high total emissions and high per capita emissions totally makes the USA the worst CO2 polluter in the world.
so quit lying.
Check your facts before calling others liars.
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THIS IS HUGE (Score:4, Funny)
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Europe? (Score:3)
It'll be interesting to see how this goes down in Europe. Most of our roofs are made of terracotta-style tiles, often flat, but sometimes shaped (seemingly more-so the closer to the Med you get). Some people have black slate, or a charcoal coloured "fake slate".
It so happens we need a new roof. Ours has been on for about 100 years, and the moss has well and truly taken root in it. Some of the tiles are delaminating a bit, some are cracking and slipping etc. I'd really like a solar roof - I really like the idea of it, and I like the benefits of it. But I still don't like the product. It could easily replace an American roof, I get that, but my shed doesn't need a new roof. I just can't see these tiles on a UK roof - and looking any good. I guess you might get away with it on an ultra-modern smooth-rendered house, but ours is older than that, and so I just can't see it.
Other colours sounds promising, but I can't wait that long. Instead, I'll probably throw up a couple of panels (with the black instead of silver frames) and then enjoy the ability to change them in 25 years, rather than having my solar in the roof for 100 and barely working. If someone could make the mounting brackets for panels "thinner" so the panel sits just above the tiles, then I'd buy those in a heartbeat - but for some reason panels seem to need to be 100mm or-so off the tiles :-(
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If someone could make the mounting brackets for panels "thinner" so the panel sits just above the tiles, then I'd buy those in a heartbeat - but for some reason panels seem to need to be 100mm or-so off the tiles :-(
That extra space is probably to improve air-flow along the back of the panels and keep them cooler, as cooler panels are generally more efficient. It may also provide space for running wires and such.
If the panels were touching your tiles, then there would be very little air-flow along the back of the panels, causing them to be warmer, thus less efficient and have a shorter life-span.
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Ours has been on for about 100 years
100 years, holy crap. I hope architects are the first against the wall when the revolution comes. We used to know how to build things.
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My roof is older than 100 years. And the Orkan from Sunday till Monday it weathered just fine ... the storm is still ongoing, I guess 3 or 4 more days, but it weakened considerably, at least over Germany, the UK are still under a heavy storm.
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and looking any good.
They look superb, especially on a hundred year old stone house made from basalt or granite.
They basically look like terracotta shingles. Albeit bluish/blackish and not dark red/brown.
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They are supposed to be coming out with textured and 3d tiles that look like terracotta and coarse slate "sometime." But not yet.
Like the top two images here:
https://www.solarreviews.com/c... [solarreviews.com]