Tesla Third Version of Solar Roof Ready for Big Time

Tesla has launched the third version of its solar roof tile system.

This is Tesla’s third Roof with Integrated solar. It combines solar and non-solar tiles that appear similar to create a better aesthetic with a comparable price of a typical roof + solar panels. It is made with tempered glass. The Solar Roof tiles are more than three times stronger than standard roofing tiles.

The New California normal of multiple power outages every year will have strong demand for all solar installations and battery backup systems.

In Northern California, PG&E has already turned off the electricity for 500,000 people and will soon turn off power for about 2.5 million people for about 2-3 days. PG&E fears starting more fires during high wind conditions. Winds will gust to 70 mph in some locations. Power will go out in Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley, parts of San Mateo and other areas.

PG&E’s plan is to screw their customers. Customers will need to have alternatives to PG&E or other California utilities as a long term plan.

27 thoughts on “Tesla Third Version of Solar Roof Ready for Big Time”

  1. So there are other power companies with power lines in California. Have they been doing things right so they don’t start fires or is there something strange about the reporting so we only hear about problems with PG&E? If the reporting is fair what have the other companies been doing different?

  2. “So you must be talking about parts of the earth where nobody lives anyways?”

    Like the UK, Germany, or North Eastern USA?

  3. It isn’t about dropping the tile on someone, it is about dropping a hammer on the tile when installing it. I’m sure they worked this out.

  4. “roof solar as doing nothing more than frying the transformations at a high price in favor of a Chernobyl generation nuclear power”

    Man if we can come up with a door #3 then we are set for life!

    “to that of a closer, more egalitarian, mostly self sustaining communities”

    GOOD NEWS COMRADE! Our Medieval egalitarian CA communities now have typhus! Not only can you live like a serf, you can die like one too!

  5. This is totally news (seriously). Power production distribution, the existence of a power grid (or nonexistence of one), etc are topics for discussion on this site. The state of CA mandates that new homes have solar panels that won’t work when the grid shuts off.

  6. If you had taken materials science 101 then you would know that tempered glass is only protected on the flat surfaces, corner and many edge impacts where it may or may not be tempered (where it might be cut after tempering) can easily cause it to shatter.
    And let’s say you dropped one. Where do you think it is going to impact? Exactly flat on another? Fairly low probability there. It is going to be a corner impact.
    That said. I am not saying they haven’t solved this, I just would like to see it demonstrated. They could have made it like windshield glass with elastic plastic sandwiched in-between. Seems like a viable approach as they probably have other stuff sandwiched in there anyway.
    People have made glass roads designed to collect solar…and those failed miserably even though the glass seemed tough enough.
    And the point of saying they are heavy is to contrast them with asphalt shingles which are not heavy unless they are bundled. I doubt anyone has ever been decapitated by a falling asphalt shingle.
    I own Tesla stock. I believe in them. I don’t believe in this roofing business. They need to make arrays that they put in the back yard on a tall pole that tracks the sun. Easy to manufacture and install. People can re-roof any time they want. Firemen are not getting electrocuted. And you get a new gazebo to hang out under.
    It is very dangerous working on roofs. You think glass tiles are not slippery with a little mist? I would not want to work up there.

  7. Some silicone can last a very long time. That is what they use currently to seal solar panels on the underside. This silicone would be between tiles where there should be not be direct sunlight. I think they rate this stuff for 50 years, but it might last longer. It is hard to rate stuff when it lasts a long time, because your tests can only go so long.
    I am not talking about quality control really. I am talking instillation ease and safety. And no they don’t have a great reputation there:
    “The aluminum trunk well, meanwhile, is made from multiple pieces held together with rivets and weld points instead of one lighter, cheaper fiberglass trunk preferred by other car makers. The rear wheel well on the Model 3 also features nine pieces of metal riveted, sealed or welded together. The Chevy Bolt? It has one stamped piece of steel.” https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-model-3-design-profits-20181017-story.html

  8. This is plain FUD. Dropping anything heavy on someone is dangerous. These glass tiles are shatter resistant, as they obviously would have to be in a roof application.

  9. It will obviously be more attractive in regions with more sun and higher cost electricity. But the math is cost of this solution vs new roof + solar panels. If you don’t need a new roof, this is not the product Tesla would suggest.

  10. I can’t tell from the site: do they have cheaper, matching non-solar tiles in case I don’t want to collect solar from my entire roof? Maybe I just want the south-facing half.

  11. They’re cutting off power to millions of customers, to prevent fires?

    Are you kidding me?

    This is some General Electric’s World of Tomorrow bullshit, like we’re living in the early 1900s with deadly electric wires hanging all over the place. We need to fix those power, telephone, and data lines so they don’t start fires or go out every time there’s a snow storm. This is seriously pathetic. We’re like India with their shitty roads, all these wires we’ve got hanging everywhere with transformers that explode. I sometimes can’t believe I’m living in the right universe because the site of power lines seems so antiquated.

  12. I wonder if tax and clean energy credits can make this make sense (and cents) on larger multifamily buildings? I am thinking of our megaproject, especially towards the large, flat, unobstructed sunny top: http://bit.ly/Riverarch
    Unfortunately, Tesla’s Quote request box does not work when you enter your email address to request a quote. There is no way to click OK or Enter to send the email to Tesla for an estimate, or to provide square feet, which seems to be how they price things.
    I wonder how many orders they are losing because of a stupid thing like that…

  13. Well, a the roof is not profitable in northern regions. There, you typically get 800 Wh for every installed W. At a price of 20c per kWh, it would take about 22 years to pay back for the roof, not counting the the interest on the investment nor the backup battery..

    This probably means that the potential market of 100 million roofs that Elon Musk mentions is much smaller in reality. Let’s hope they can reduce the price to about half. Then mabey it would start to make sense not just for California….

    A note. The solar roof only makes sense since energy is taxed very high, and because the energy transport is charged at exorbitant rates. Without these two artificial processes hikes, a solar roof wouldn’t make sense anywhere even at half the price that is listed….

  14. Good points and I am sure none tesla’s engineers or brainy people ever thought of them. And just how long did you say that silicon you recommend would last before drying out and cracking(falling, washing away)?

  15. Oh you thought this was news. No a lot of these articles are just writers slanted opinions disguised as news.

  16. PG&E needs to vastly increase rates to pay to harden their distribution system from trees and fires. But… under California law, they can only pay for insulating wires and hardening their system using money taken exclusively from executive salaries.

  17. PG&E’s plan is to screw their customers? I thought this blog was better than that. PG&E is bankrupt. Their plan is to not cause billion dollar fires that kill people.

  18. Only a couple of month ago you have dismissed Solar and in particular roof solar as doing nothing more than frying the transformations at a high price in favor of a Chernobyl generation nuclear power. I guess that because the world Guru Musk is getting deeper into it and power outages in your area have turned the switch on for you. One way or the other, the world is already turning back to what it meant to be before the invention of the first machine, the plow, 7000 years ago, to that of a closer, more egalitarian, mostly self sustaining communities, with all the technology that we have collected along the way.

  19. This sounds very hazardous for installers…and anyone on the ground during installation. It is very easy to slip on a roof. If the tiles are glass dropping one can be very dangerous. I hope they are using borosilicate glass, thick pieces that people can stand on, and maybe some silicone between each, so it is not glass directly on glass.
    The other thing is the non solar tiles should also be very long life…preferably made from the same materials.
    People will be more eager to put these roofs on if the roof will last 100 years…even if the solar production falls off dramatically by then.

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