Elon Musk's First Tesla Solar Roof Is Here

Why would you bet they won't be made here? Our mfg cost too high?

 

China didn't build their solar industry by "keeping everybody's money", as you say. I think that you may be thinking of the old, Cold War perception of China which hardly applies anymore, since China is much more capitalist and Western these days. You're right. It's not worth debating because we invented the original technology, but didn't support the industry, so we lose an industry that stands to make billions, if not trillions of dollars.

 

Well, I'm not saying that Americans won't buy American-made solar products in the future, but if Walmart is any example, I think that you can clearly see if manufacturing costs are lower in China, and they are able to manufacture products that are more affordable for the average American, it would stand to reason that the same model would apply to the solar industry. Americans tend to buy products that are cheaper, regardless of where they are made. That's not to say that Elon Musk won't sell his solar tiles, or make some kind of profit in the American market. He probably will, but because the US lacks a sophisticated infrastructure to manufacture solar products in MASS quantities, we won't be able to supply much of the GLOBAL demand for solar products like China can right now. They've already invested billions of dollars, and built their infrastructure up during the last 15 years, to such a degree that we Americans are now too far behind to compete.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, support comes down to usefulness verses monitory gain in a capitalistic society. That drove us from solar in the 70's even with all the tax credits. It just didn't prove realistically profitable.

 

I thought Elon Musk was Cologne,,,

 

The improvements in solar technology are light years away from the early inventions of the 1970's, and "tax credits" are not the same as "infrastructure creation" to support new industry and fund large-scale, technological advancements. That takes "national vision", "commitment" and "co-ordination", something the Chinese have, but we don't anymore.

 

No, we have essentially limited the research into the process thereby limiting the ability to compete with later more efficient versions. Cheap would be the correct term at that point like a 286 Computer when compared to a current version.

 

Which is why discussing the non comparable types of roofs is doing nothing at all.

 

Actually we will. The fact that fossil fuels ARE a finite source makes them more and more expensive as time goes on.

 

Who keeps everyone's money? That is a non-point.

 

I am old enough to remember the same thing being said about Japanese products.

 

My electric bill averages $150 a month in the peak of the summer and about $60-70 in the spring and fall, maybe $200 in the dead of winter. It works out to about $1600-1700 a year. At $21.85/sq ft, the Tesla roof would be about $43k for my house. So My ROI would be something like 25-30 years. I doubt I will still be in this house in 20 years.

 

It's done plenty. It shows only a very few roofs are monitarily comparable and why it's not yet economically feasible for our average consumer.

 

At this point in time, however the fact that a premium roof, not the asphalt shingles here, is comparable to the cost of a solar panel roof IS a pretty big deal. Comparing premium to premium now means there is the greater possibility of expansion of the market and even lower costs as the technology improves. It is more like the television or computer started out and see where those technologies are today.

 

With the caveats of all things remaining equal such as that power rates do not increase, consumption does not change, and also that you would not produce more power than you consume ....

 

If we could generate all this free solar power, where would we store it? You can't switch off steam turbines and just switch them on again.

 

Since Duke Energy has programs in place to have people give them the ability to cut off their HVAC systems during times of over demand, generally during the day, I don't think there would be a huge problem with that. It is not as if they all run at near maximum capacity all day everyday is it?

 

Cutting output need has what to do with storage of power?

 

If the solar power is used during the day, which is the peak usage, there is no need to store it, thus storage is a non-issue just like storage of power from any other source.

 

Storage is the issue being discussed. Consumers who've signed up for three peak cut off program have determined they will take the incentive money because it's just not that much of an incovenience. Selling them more power doesn't seem to be the solution with no way to store the extra kw's.