Tesla + SolarCity Solar Shingles (+ Video)

October 29th, 2016 by Steve Hanley 

Originally published on Solar Love.

Note: One of our reporters was at the reveal and will be writing an article about the event and the new products as well.

On October 28, Elon Musk played ringmaster while Tesla and SolarCity showed off their new line of glass solar tiles that generate electricity but look like conventional roof shingles and tiles. Musk told an audience of several hundred invited guests that between 4 and 5 million new roofs are installed in America every year and many times more than that are installed worldwide. If the cost of a solar roof was less than what a homeowner would spend for a conventional roof plus utility bills that wouldn’t have to be paid over the roof’s 30 year useful life, “Why wouldn’t you?” Musk asked.

Good question. To be honest, conventional rooftop solar systems are not aesthetically pleasing to look at (in my opinion). The main advantage to Musk’s solar roof is that it adds to the look of a home instead of detracting from it. The solar roof tiles will come in four styles. The first looks like a conventional black roof shingle. The second resembles a conventional slate roof. Its individual tiles vary slightly in shade, making for a roof that is the most attractive of all. Third is called Tuscan and looks like the curved terracotta roofing tiles common throughout southern Europe and California. The fourth option is called textured glass and is visually appealing as well.

The secret sauce in all this is a series of micro-louvers built into each tile, technology developed in cooperation with 3M Corporation. The louvers allow sunlight to shine directly on the solar cells below but hide them from view from the street. The result is the best of both worlds — solar panels that generate electricity and a roof that generates compliments and adds value to any home.

To show off the new roof products, Tesla took over four houses on the back lot of Universal Studios that once served as the set for the reality TV series Desperate Housewives. Each house had its old roof stripped off and replaced with one of the four styles of glass roof tiles that Tesla and SolarCity will offer. Naturally, each home had Tesla automobiles parked in the garage to emphasize that having a solar roof means sufficient power for the inhabitants with enough electricity leftover to charge electric vehicles.

The missing link in that scenario is battery storage. Tesla has recently introduced its second generation Powerwall with double the energy storage capacity as the original — 14 kWh versus 7 kWh. It is less sculpted than the original but comes with the inverter built in, which should simplify installation. The original cost is about $7,000 including an inverter and installation. Musk says the new unit should be capable of meeting the needs of a family of four for lighting, normal household use, and a refrigerator for about a day if there is a power outage. Notably absent from his example is any mention of heating or air conditioning.

The Powerwall 2.0 with double the power should cost about the same as the original after installation, which illustrates how quickly the prices of energy storage products are dropping, The original has only been on the market for about a year and already we have a new version with twice the power for about the same money. Elon let slip that he expects Tesla to sell more Powerwalls than automobiles.

Musk emphasized during his solar roof presentation that his overarching goal is for the world to transition to 100% clean, renewable energy from the sun as quickly as possible. If the world fails to complete that transition in time to prevent massive disruption from climate change, it won’t be for lack of trying on Tesla’s part. Many people mistake Tesla for an electric car company that also makes batteries. It is just the opposite — a battery company that also makes electric cars.

Source: Wired | Photo by Tesla

Advocating for the National Election Reform Platform

 As Independents we are not convinced that we can rely on the two large legacy parties for correcting the mess they have gotten us in to. Fixing democracy is vital and must be implemented to increase citizen involvement in solving the issues of war, immigration, health care, environment, education, trade, etc.

Here are ten key points of our National Election Reform Platform (NERP). We are asking all presidential and congressional candidates to pledge their support... 

1. Uniform Ballot Access for federal candidates. Rather than candidates for president having 51 different rules for making the ballot, we make the criteria the same throughout the land. That means those running for Senate and House also have the same criteria in each state.

2. Loosen Third Party Ballot Restrictions. Force states to untie ballot access to past election results. Without fair ballot access in place now, the thresholds to become a recognized third party are too difficult to achieve (by design of the two larger parties). Currently only 36 states have at least one recognized third party and that changes based on election results.

3. Universal Voter Registration. Legislation has already been passed that will require government standardized identification cards which should be acceptable to election officials to allow anyone who shows up at the right precinct on Election Day to vote on-the-spot whether registered or not.

4. Extended Election Day. Either hold elections on weekends or move it to a holiday like Columbus Day in October.

5. Equal Media Access for third party contenders to include broadcast time and inclusion in the debates. 

6. Institute Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) which allows voters to rank their choices. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote – over 50% - then the lowest number of first place votes is eliminated and the votes are recounted for how many second place votes came in. This continues until a candidate is declared a winner of a majority.

7. Secure the Vote - Ensure the security of our voting instruments whether it is via a papertrail or some better method. Thirteen years after the Florida debacle and we still do not have secure voting machines – considering the fact that electronic machines are subject to manipulation.

8. Public Campaign Financing - Instituting a fair and equitable method of public campaign financing reduces the taxpayer burden. Here's how: It costs the country more now under the current system that forces candidates to raise exorbitant sums of money from corporate and private donors (read: elitists and their SuperPACs). The winner is then beholden to the group of financiers that paid for that victory which creates a corrupt system of paybacks and legislation that raids our Treasury – at an enormous cost to the real owners of our country – the people.

9. Direct Election of the president. Get rid of the Electoral College.

10. Voting Rights in congress for the citizens of the federal District of Columbia.

written by Joseph Oddo, National Director

Contact Joe Oddo for details

bettercandidates@gmail.com

703-338-0200

Thanks right folks. Now that the president has relieved travel restrictions to our neighbor just an hour plane ride from Miami (censored from revealing destination), I aim to go within the next six weeks. Our delegation of up to 30 will be spending seven days traveling around the cultural, educational, humanitarian and artistic venues to learn, share and grow.

While less expensive than traveling in the US, there are still approximately $2,500 in expenses that I seek to offset with the generosity of my friends and colleagues. I have always sought to enrich my brothers intellect and spread the practical application of goodwill through hard work, attention to detail and sharing experiences from running for office to writing books to selling to organizing to communicating via radio and television media.

Currently a volunteer on WTJU radio (99.1 FM in Charlottesville, and GreenTV (Fairfax Public Access Television), I have a forum to spread what we can learn from our TBD brethren after this trip.

So please share any amount you can - from buying me a meal one day ($20) to sponsoring the plane ticket ($350ish). Your generosity is greatly appreciated. You will be rewarded knowing that you sponsored a true historical educational opportunity.

Send any amount of funds to my Paypal account. Or write a check to Joseph Oddo Sr., 2404 Barracks Ct Suite 1 Charlottesville, VA 22901 

Contact me for more details at 703-338-0200. 

Woodard lays out his map in the new book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.” Here’s how he breaks down the continent:

Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.

New Netherland: The Netherlands was the most sophisticated society in the Western world when New York was founded, Woodard writes, so it’s no wonder that the region has been a hub of global commerce. It’s also the region most accepting of historically persecuted populations.

The Midlands: Stretching from Quaker territory west through Iowa and into more populated areas of the Midwest, the Midlands are “pluralistic and organized around the middle class.” Government intrusion is unwelcome, and ethnic and ideological purity isn’t a priority.

Tidewater: The coastal regions in the English colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware tend to respect authority and value tradition. Once the most powerful American nation, it began to decline during Westward expansion.

Greater Appalachia: Extending from West Virginia through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Northwest Texas, the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish settlers value individual liberty. Residents are “intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers.”

Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old South values states’ rights and local control and fights the expansion of federal powers.

El Norte: Southwest Texas and the border region is the oldest, and most linguistically different, nation in the Americas. Hard work and self-sufficiency are prized values.

The Left Coast: A hybrid, Woodard says, of Appalachian independence and Yankee utopianism loosely defined by the Pacific Ocean on one side and coastal mountain ranges like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas on the other. The independence and innovation required of early explorers continues to manifest in places like Silicon Valley and the tech companies around Seattle.

The Far West: The Great Plains and the Mountain West were built by industry, made necessary by harsh, sometimes inhospitable climates. Far Westerners are intensely libertarian and deeply distrustful of big institutions, whether they are railroads and monopolies or the federal government.

New France: Former French colonies in and around New Orleans and Quebec tend toward consensus and egalitarian, “among the most liberal on the continent, with unusually tolerant attitudes toward gays and people of all races and a ready acceptance of government involvement in the economy,” Woodard writes.

The clashes between the 11 nations play out in every way, from politics to social values. Woodard notes that states with the highest rates of violent deaths are in the Deep South, Tidewater and Greater Appalachia, regions that value independence and self-sufficiency. States with lower rates of violent deaths are in Yankeedom, New Netherland and the Midlands, where government intervention is viewed with less skepticism.

States in the Deep South are much more likely to have stand-your-ground laws than states in the northern “nations.” And more than 95 percent of executions in the United States since 1976 happened in the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, Tidewater and the Far West. States in Yankeedom and New Netherland have executed a collective total of just one person.