Can Tesla’s solar roof smash competition?

By Around the Web

(OilPrice) To much fanfare, Tesla’s Elon Musk unveiled his company’s newest creation on Wednesday – the solar roof.

Tesla’s new solar roof has the appearance of a traditional roof, with individual shingles that are imbedded with solar cells. The visually-impressive roof comes in four versions: smooth or textured glass, slate, and a Tuscan-style terra cotta. They are virtually indistinguishable from a normal roof. Musk’s logic is that by building solar generation units that resemble a traditional roof, Tesla could overcome one stubborn hurdle in solar adoption – one of perceived poor aesthetics.

But no matter how attractive the solar system is, it better be price-competitive. Tesla’s solar roof, to be sure, is still for the well-to-do. Bloomberg estimates that outfitting a 2,000 square foot house in New York with Tesla’s solar roof would cost about $50,000. And that only assumes covering 40 percent of the roof.

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