Actually, it looks like a normal roof, which is a good thing.
The solar roof works out as cheaper than a new roof even before the energy savings brought by using the roof. When those are factored in, the roof starts to pay for itself.
Soon we shall have self-buying roofs...
These tiles are tough. They’re made of tempered glass, which makes them about three times stronger than slate or asphalt. On top of that, the tiles are capable of defrosting by using a similar method employed by anti-ice wires used in windshields. All this means the tiles are capable of working through extreme conditions.
Musk explained during the call that solar roof tile production should increase exponentially, in a similar fashion to Model 3 production. That means initial growth will be slow, followed by a sharp increase, and ending with a plateau, where Tesla produces a consistently high number of tiles per month. Even when production reaches its peak, though, it’s going to take a long time before every house has a solar roof.
“I think eventually almost all houses will have a solar roof,” Musk said during a May TED conference in Vancouver. “The thing to consider the timescale to be probably on the order of 40 for 50 years. On average, a roof is replaced every 20 to 25 years, but you don’t start replacing all roofs immediately, but eventually, if you were to fast forward to 15 years from now, it will be unusual to have a roof that doesn’t have solar.”
I suspect there's going to be strong regional variations in that average roof replacement time. 15 years will probably be closer to 50... though it will depend on just how quickly the roof is able to pay for itself.
https://www.inverse.com/article/35022-elon-musk-tesla-solar-roof-photos-amazing
Yeah, when they first announced this I thought that 20-25 years seems an extremely short lifespan for a roof. I'm 95% sure my house still has it's original roof and my house was built at least fifty years ago.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling a lot of the US doesn't use the same kind of heavy ceramic tiles that we do here.
There's a new estate being built near me where a lot of the roofs have built in solar. They look like solar panels but personally I don't care about that.
I have seen roofs more than a century old. They generally need some maintenance, though. 100 km and 100 years, I guess...
ReplyDeleteAlso, is there any word about retreating old solar panels? Massive toxic waste problem left to the next generation to deal with doesn't strike me as a good way to save the world.