re: Tesla's Solar Roof Tiles 20% Cheaper Than Normal Roof Tiles

Their math is fuzzy, to say the least. Ideally the cost would come down as more people turned to it over slate or tile. Even if by some miracle the costs came down to put them in the ballpark of tar and shingles, there's still the Powerwall the consumer must purchase (~$6,500 if I remember correctly).

Still, this is a good step in the right direction.

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Their math is fuzzy, to say the least.

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Most definitely. If you look at the way they calculate your final "cost", it's ridiculous. They factor the federal tax credit (NOT REBATE) as part of your savings, which makes no sense. You don't actually save that much money, but that credit reduces your taxable income. It's still a decent amount of savings, but they are being very misleading.

And yeah, it's not cheaper than a new roof. For some, it may be after factor in 30 years worth of $ saved, but even then, if you were to invest that money now in something safe with a decent interest rate, you'd come out way ahead 30 years later.

Also they calculate that you will live in the same home for thirty years.

How many people do that?

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Most definitely. If you look at the way they calculate your final "cost", it's ridiculous. They factor the federal tax credit (NOT REBATE) as part of your savings, which makes no sense. You don't actually save that much money, but that credit reduces your taxable income. It's still a decent amount of savings, but they are being very misleading

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Not true. The SITC is a credit against federal income taxes owed, and it can be carried forward until it is exhausted. It is a dollar for dollar reduction in your federal taxes owed, not an above the line deduction like you suggested.

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And yeah, it's not cheaper than a new roof. For some, it may be after factor in 30 years worth of $ saved, but even then, if you were to invest that money now in something safe with a decent interest rate, you'd come out way ahead 30 years later

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Underrated part of these "payback" schedules.

Musk is the one of the ultimate corporate welfare queens.

WITHOUT those HUGE gubmint handouts, he is nothing more than another snake-oil salesman.

Price may be going down somewhat BUT the real question is HOW much electricity can a solar panel array generate?

Last time I calculated(this was a few years ago), one would need 4-5 acres of solar panels just to power a small 5000 BTU air conditioning window unit.

There are still huge hurdles that are going to be overcome for solar to be a viable and reliable source of power.

You still most have a huge bank of batteries to store the power into.

There has to be at least 6-7 hours of good sunlight per day to store power into these battery banks.

What about when the sun does shine, say for several days? Or weeks?

Still lots of hurdles to overcome.

Nuclear power is where it is at. That is the future of our power needs.

Natural gas is also a good alternative.

Until and unless there are some quantum leaps in technology in solar, solar is at best a pipe-dream.

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Until and unless there are some quantum leaps in technology in solar, solar is at best a pipe-dream.

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????

Our neighbor down the street in Green Bay put some traditional solar panels on his roof for $14,000 and they not only cover all of his energy needs, he sells some back to the grid.

It works and is only going to continue to get better.