Elon Musk Announces Solar Roof
October 29, 2016
“We need to make solar panels as appealing as electric cars have become.”
Another Al Gore impression from America’s most dynamic industrial leader.
About 500,000 solar panels were installed every day last year as a record-shattering surge in green electricity saw renewables overtake coal as the world’s largest source of installed power capacity.
Two wind turbines went up every hour in countries such as China, according to International Energy Agency officials who have sharply upgraded their forecasts of how fast renewable energy sources will keep growing.
“We are witnessing a transformation of global power markets led by renewables,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the global energy advisory agency.
Part of the growth was caused by falls in the cost of solar and onshore wind power that Mr Birol said would have been “unthinkable” only five years ago.
Although coal and other fossil fuels remain the largest source of electricity generation, many conventional power utilities and energy groups have been confounded by the speed at which renewables have grown and the rapid drop in costs for the technologies.
Average global generation costs for new onshore wind farms fell by an estimated 30 per cent between 2010 and 2015 while those for big solar panel plants fell by an even steeper two-thirds, an IEA report published on Tuesday showed.
The Paris-based agency thinks costs are likely to fall even further over the next five years, by 15 per cent on average for wind and by a quarter for solar power.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
October 29, 2016 at 10:46 am
[…] “Part of the growth was caused by falls in the cost of solar and onshore wind power that Mr Birol said would have been “unthinkable” only five years ago.”–Peter Sinclair (Elon Musk Announces Solar Roof | Climate Denial Crock of the Week) […]
October 29, 2016 at 11:00 am
Reblogged this on AGR Daily News Service.
October 30, 2016 at 5:24 pm
It’ll be interesting to see how much this costs; I expect Tesla will do the usual estimate of offsets that may or may not factor in the short term.
But the appearance is terrific; if the price is right, they should be extremely popular.
I wonder if busybodies will try to use legislation to prevent these from being installed.
October 30, 2016 at 8:49 pm
Now THIS is true progress! Excellent news, if it works. Real green energy sources should be as inconspicious as possible. I get tired of people railing about our carbon footprint while deliberaly ignoring visual and noise footprints. Envronmentalism needs to consistently respect nature and peace.
Musk probably also understands how inefficient industrial wind turbines are, and hopefully isn’t such a tech-puppet that he can’t see the aesthetic havoc they wreak. He also called out hydrogen energy as “incredibly dumb,” and it shares the same kludge factor as wind power; building vast infrastructrure via fossil fuels which can never actually supplant them. Even the most inefficient solar PV is a lot greener than wind blight.
http://cutt.us/blightfornaught
October 31, 2016 at 8:48 am
Solar panels AS roofing is the logical step everyone was waiting for to push up PV use into the mainstream. It, no doubt, costs way more right now than the majority of people could afford but there will be enough new users who can afford it to bring the price down to be the best option for a new roof owner.
One niggling question. What measures are taken to make these roofs safe for workmen to climb on. Obviously the installers could work up there but these shingles look frighteningly slippery. A tradesman repairing a vent or window may not have the equipment needed to work on these safely.
November 2, 2016 at 4:33 pm
Rud Istvan has some interesting news about energy storage:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/11/02/the-cult-of-tesla/#comment-2331784
https://judithcurry.com/2016/11/02/vehicular-decarbonisation-two-new-technologies-to-watch/
November 3, 2016 at 12:06 am
Waiting on auto innovation from Toyota is like watching water freeze in sunlight.
After getting an early lead with the Prius, they spent almost a dozen years figuring out how to attach a power cord to the battery pack.
But I’ve heard they’ve finally mastered an exciting new technology that will be coming soon to their cars.
The lithium-ion battery. I kid you not.