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Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

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Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also say that Rich people pave the way for adaption. For example, look at prices of flights. Before there was no "first class" everything was first class, now there are cabin options. While that example is a service, more proliferation of service == wider adaption == increased scale of economies == eventually prices come down for everyone.

The trickle-down of the left.

You mean the right.

This is exactly what is meant by trickle down economics. The left just likes to pretend that because money isn’t going directly in your pocket it’s all a scam, but that’s not the truth.

Sorry.

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#102
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cheaper than traditional roof plus solar. I find that really hard to believe. A new roof runs between 5-10k, and a 3kw solar system can be had for ~5k + labor. Even if they are including a power wall in that price it's still pretty steep. Edit: It looks like they are actually quoting a 10kw system with 3 power walls (~40kwH storage) included, which at that point sounds about right at $40k. Still far beyond the reac…

Roofs in my area are 20k for 1200 sq ft. Asphalt shingles. I would love to live in an area where it’s 5-10k.

That's rediculous, in what area?

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#104
post #36

> It also lists $33,950 as the price after an $8,550 federal tax incentive. There is something absolutely astonishing about the fact that in America the way we have go about being eco-friendly is to give huge tax breaks to rich people to buy solar panels and electric vehicles. To think with all that money we could build better infrastructure and denser housing. Really boggles the mind.

Incentiving rich people to buy expansive tech (and still at lost for the riches) help the technologies to ride the cost curve and bring it to the masses.

Let rich people get the buggy version 1.0 stuff and help the technology mature for everyone! I'll wait a few years and get the debugged version 2.0 or 3.0 for 1/10th the price.

Look at 4K TV sets, for example.

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#105
post #36

> It also lists $33,950 as the price after an $8,550 federal tax incentive. There is something absolutely astonishing about the fact that in America the way we have go about being eco-friendly is to give huge tax breaks to rich people to buy solar panels and electric vehicles. To think with all that money we could build better infrastructure and denser housing. Really boggles the mind.

Incentiving rich people to buy expansive tech (and still at lost for the riches) help the technologies to ride the cost curve and bring it to the masses.

People who pay more than $8500 in taxes can benefit from the tax break. I'm not sure I'd consider that rich.

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#106
post #91

I have a friend in America who has a fairly large PV set up on part of his property. Listening to the all the obstacles he's had to overcome and all the surprising limitations he's saddled with, I can't help but suspect that the power company in his area that he's selling the power to would rather that these sorts of installations simply not exist. Coupling that with the fact that off-peak pricing isn't the norm in a…

Some utility companies in the U.S. are quite solar-hostile. A major Alabama utility charges a monthly “backup fee” of $5 per kW of installed solar, regardless of usage:

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/02/728761703/to-some-solar-users...

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#107
post #59

The interesting parts of the call yesterday for me were talking about the challenges they have with v2, although we didn’t really get to hear much about how those issues were addressed. First, that basically everyone was pulled off working on Energy to deal with Model 3 issues because they were do or die for the company. Now with Model 3 under control those resources were put back into Energy - solar, roof, and stora…

>If I was able to ask a question on the call I would have asked about winterizarion. I want to know that they’ve tested their solution against ice & snow, and particularly that it won’t ice dam during a New England winter.

This is the magic question that I hope gets answered.

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#108

> It also lists $33,950 as the price after an $8,550 federal tax incentive. There is something absolutely astonishing about the fact that in America the way we have go about being eco-friendly is to give huge tax breaks to rich people to buy solar panels and electric vehicles. To think with all that money we could build better infrastructure and denser housing. Really boggles the mind.

Denser human scale development is the real answer. Electric cars and rooftop solar is not going to solve the massive suburban sprawl crisis. You can thank the federal interstate system for that (effectively subsidizing land).

I agree we should put the breaks on urban sprawl, but the US is already spread out. I mean what’s more feasible: Have all current suburbanites sell their house, move downtown, and have their old property leveled OR get them driving an EV?

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#109

I quite like this product and think it'll be a big thing. I do wonder about a comparison to what I've seen recently, which is standard roofs with solar built in almost like skylights. Just big panels at the same level as the tiles, not placed on top in a retrofit. Seems like it's a good compromise (as long as you can get panels that blend with the tiles, and that generate enough that you don't need the whole roof cov…

>I quite like this product and think it'll be a big thing.

Do you like it more than when they released it 3 years ago, but never installed any? Can someone point me to the V1 and V2 installations?

Re: Tesla’s new Solar Roof costs less than a new roof plus solar panels

#110
post #36

> It also lists $33,950 as the price after an $8,550 federal tax incentive. There is something absolutely astonishing about the fact that in America the way we have go about being eco-friendly is to give huge tax breaks to rich people to buy solar panels and electric vehicles. To think with all that money we could build better infrastructure and denser housing. Really boggles the mind.

Incentiving rich people to buy expansive tech (and still at lost for the riches) help the technologies to ride the cost curve and bring it to the masses.

The masses don't own houses to put these roofs on. Because of concentration of wealth and return on capital exacerbating that concentration. Because of rent seeking pyramid schemes. Which I imagine artificially restricts demand for improvements like solar panel roofs: who has more inventive to invest in things like solar panel roofs? Owner occupants who are in it for the long term, or rent seeking landlords just trying to make their mortgage payments on time and turn a buck?
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