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Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#211

Post by RataNova »

1123581321 wrote: post #167

My thoughts are generally in line with the conclusion. The growth in the rooftop solar market has come from right-sized installations that can be put up in a day or two by a small crew. Minimizing crew and paperwork costs is important when quoting solar competitively; plus it reduces the complexity of operations at headquarters. Cheaper installations generally win, especially when the homeowner receives a credit on t…

And this is probably the core issue. Solar Roof was trying to be a roofing product, an energy product, and a design product all at once

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#212

Post by RataNova »

dangus wrote: post #203
1123581321 wrote: post #167

My thoughts are generally in line with the conclusion. The growth in the rooftop solar market has come from right-sized installations that can be put up in a day or two by a small crew. Minimizing crew and paperwork costs is important when quoting solar competitively; plus it reduces the complexity of operations at headquarters. Cheaper installations generally win, especially when the homeowner receives a credit on t…

This is also representative of Tesla’s stagnation as a company. They essentially have not made a new product since the Model Y came out. No, the Cybertruck doesn’t count, I don’t think we can even consider that a product brought to completion in terms of being an automobile of acceptable market competitiveness. They are struggling in China which is pretty insane considering their head start in that country. Clearly t…

I think the pattern is less "Tesla can't invent anymore" and more that the company seems much worse at turning ambitious concepts into mature, supported products

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#213

Post by RataNova »

danpalmer wrote: post #192

I bet there's an aspect of normalisation here too. Tesla Solar Roofs were all about looks, all about not looking like you had solar panels, but as the world warms up (pun intended) to solar, having visible panels is less of a concern, and may even be desirable.

Solar Roof made sense when panels were seen as something to disguise

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#214

Post by pbmonster »

tln wrote: post #173
pbmonster wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a third way: in-roof or roof integrated photovoltaics. Normal panels, but integrated into the roof. Those look amazing. Very popular in Switzerland where some villages have strict aesthetic rules for buildings. Next best thing aesthetically are full-roof racks, where one face of the roof is 100% covered in panels. Nowadays you just have to select the right panel and you can make it tile the plane perfectly.

Don't you need fire setbacks? I didn't think full roof racks were possible

Building codes on that are going to vary locally. They are doable in most of Switzerland if you plan for it: no sky lights, no chimney (there's setbacks and fire codes for those), ect.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#215

Post by locallost »

It's a good idea if you're driving looking at the rear view mirror. Roof tiles are a thing of the past. It matches what I think a roof is, but if you can do the same thing for a fraction of the price it will win out, and for the new generations, solar panels attached to roofs will be just as normal as tiles for me.

I do think it's an interesting idea to use panels everywhere, but it can't be a complicated and expensive solution. You could maybe use them as a facade or lately people have used them for fences.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#216

Post by tensor »

xiphias2 wrote: post #200
timzaman wrote: post #194

please realize the author (frank lambert) has turned full anti-elon propaganda so take everything he writes with a grain of salt. or better - avoid.

The magazin was bought I think. There's always some interesting background of the stories. Solarcity was clearly a great example of Elon's ,,no investor left behind'' philosophy: if he promotes a company and gets investors to invest in it, he is doing whatever he can to make sure that they at least don't lose their money (by merging it to a bigger company he controls), even if it wouldn't be the best financial decisi…

It would be better for investors if he didn't destroy all his products with both his obscene politics and also his little fantasy pet projects that no one wants. Eventually the house of cards will collapse. At this point all that investors can hope for is something akin to a government bond. Unfortunately one for a government that is currently excelling at depreciating anything related to it.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#217

Post by tensor »

xnx wrote: post #74

Aside from power-independence, does solar on residential roofs ever make sense? For all the complexity of doing a few houses, you could do an entire parking lot (or empty land) and power the whole neighborhood.

Yes, they can pay for themselves in about 10 years. This is very easy to look up.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#218

Post by tensor »

rsynnott wrote: post #79
transfire wrote: post #7

Sad. A great idea ruined by poor business practices.

A bad idea ruined by poor business practices. Like, it's very hard to see how it could ever compete economically with normal solar panels.

What a ridiculous statement. People get all sorts of roofs with all sorts of trade offs. Looks is absolutely one of them. Also, any product that gets popular eventually gets highly optimized manufacturing pipelines bringing the cost down.

It doesn't need to compete with normal panels on only one metric. People will accept longer payoff times for aesthetics or durability if the ratio is right. Also, who really cares about Tesla at this point? Other companies are now producing these panels.

Like everything Musk, it died because of his poor business practices and his politics. The only thing he seems to excel at these days is extracting government money.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#219

Post by whatever1 »

timzaman wrote: post #194

please realize the author (frank lambert) has turned full anti-elon propaganda so take everything he writes with a grain of salt. or better - avoid.

Oh no! An author is against a billionaire who does nazi salutes and promotes daily white race supremacy content in the social media he owns!

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#220

Post by Gigachad »

1123581321 wrote: post #167

My thoughts are generally in line with the conclusion. The growth in the rooftop solar market has come from right-sized installations that can be put up in a day or two by a small crew. Minimizing crew and paperwork costs is important when quoting solar competitively; plus it reduces the complexity of operations at headquarters. Cheaper installations generally win, especially when the homeowner receives a credit on t…

In Australia solar panels are so ubiquitous I don't think you'd even notice them. They just blend in as much as any other functional part of a house.
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