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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

#151

Post by ajross »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #25

> 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.

Total subsidies for this stuff are in the low $billions. Really it's not that much money overall (the EV market is still small, and the other stuff is all still noise), and wouldn't go far if spent for infrastructure.

FWIW: newly built dense housing is actually cheaper than the more typical sprawl. In fact it's much cheaper if you factor in (heh) infrastructure savings due to the reduced road and utility lengths.

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

#152

Post by selectodude »

joshcain wrote: post #111
selectodude wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. That $7500 is a full on tax credit. Not a deduction. So as long as you pay more than $7500 in taxes, you get it all back. And if for some reason you pay less, you’ll get a refund.

No, he’s right. The EV credit is not refundable* so your tax liability has to be at least $7500 to get the full benefit of it. * https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/dis...

I didn't realize it wasn't refundable. However you don't need to make much to pay $7500 in taxes. I don't make enough to buy an electric car and I pay three times that.

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

#153

Post by mepiethree »

zaroth wrote: 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…

> 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

Well that, and because SolarCity was hemorrhaging money

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

#154

Post by mepiethree »

stevehawk wrote: post #68

Does anyone know the situation for putting these tiles on one side of the roof but not the other? I live in northern Indiana and would gladly put these on my southern facing roof, but my northern roof is particularly complex (a lot of joints/edges) and obviously not really ever going to get any sun.

You can do that with normal solar panels, or with these

I recommend using project sunroof to see if doing so would make you money. They analyze your roof size and tilt, trees around your property, etc. For free.

https://www.google.com/get/sunroof

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

#155

Post by mcculley »

amayne wrote: post #130
blurbleblurble wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tryi…

>The masses don't own houses to put these roofs on. 64% of Americans own the home they live in. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United...

I’m not sure that is a useful number. Don’t most of that 64% own only a fraction of their home? How many homeowners are not paying off a mortgage?

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

#156

Post by steelframe »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #138
abootstrapper wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The first one, at least for the next decades. (We don't have enough resources for the second option - due to the required number of batteries. )

We know we can't quickly replace all gas combustion engines on the road today with batteries because of material supply constraints alone. However if the goal is to reduce carbon emissions by vehicles by 90%, we can probably get there by replacing 95% of all gas-only vehicles with plug-in hybrids, which require a small fraction of the amount of battery material than fully electric cars require. I'm probably off with my estimates, but I believe they're in the ballpark.

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

#157

Post by zaroth »

mcculley wrote: post #155
amayne wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The masses don't own houses to put these roofs on. 64% of Americans own the home they live in. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United...

I’m not sure that is a useful number. Don’t most of that 64% own only a fraction of their home? How many homeowners are not paying off a mortgage?

This is vastly moving the goalposts of the discussion. The point is 64% of Americans are dealing with issues like deciding when to replace their roof, and what material to replace it with.

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

#158

Post by mepiethree »

admerox wrote: post #16

2 questions: - If you opt-out of the powerwalls can the system switch to the regular grid when needed? - Can you sell energy back to the regular grid in case you produce more than you need?

Yes you can switch to the regular grid and yes you can sell back your power in most states ("net metering"), though that often just manifests as a credit for your night time electricity usage.

38 states, DC, and Puerto Rico allow this. https://www.seia.org/initiatives/net-metering

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

#159

Post by blurbleblurble »

zaroth wrote: post #157
mcculley wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure that is a useful number. Don’t most of that 64% own only a fraction of their home? How many homeowners are not paying off a mortgage?

This is vastly moving the goalposts of the discussion. The point is 64% of Americans are dealing with issues like deciding when to replace their roof, and what material to replace it with.

Is it though? When the money that could be going to solar roofs is mostly just going to the rent seekers?
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