Tesla Solar Roof in Canada

[sakimano]

the negative reactions to price aren't really fair.

If you're comparing a Tesla solar roof that looks like a slate (real or manufactured) roof, you ought to compare it to a slate roof.

On that house above that was shown to be 2000 square feet, the roof, if slate, would probably cost about $30,000-40,000, maybe more depending on the pitch of the roof.

Then factor in electricity savings of about $50-100/month and you're looking at $6,000-12,000 every 10 years.

You also have a bit of an asset in the roof as when you're selling your house you can advertise that as a premium.

I still don't think it's going to be 'cheaper' than getting a slate roof. I also don't think getting a Tesla Model S P90D is cheaper than an Audi RS7, but I still bought one. There's a little more going on.

When you consider you're also futureproofing yourself from the price escalation that we keep seeing in electricity, that's pretty cool too.

 

[wayner]

It isn't clear that buyers pay a premium when buying homes with solar panels, but maybe the Tesla solar roof will be different. If you buy a house with a 2009 microFIT solar install you will get $.802/kWh until 2029. If you have the maximum sized system of 10kW then you will earn about $9,000/yr from that. I have a 2015 microFIT install and I earn $0.384/kWh. But some folks may find solar panels unsightly - mine are not visible from the front of the house, only from the rear.

 

[sakimano]

It isn't clear that buyers pay a premium when buying homes with solar panels, but maybe the Tesla solar roof will be different. If you buy a house with a 2009 microFIT solar install you will get $.802/kWh until 2029. If you have the maximum sized system of 10kW then you will earn about $9,000/yr from that. I have a 2015 microFIT install and I earn $0.384/kWh. But some folks may find solar panels unsightly - mine are not visible from the front of the house, only from the rear.

yes I would agree that it's tough to quantify, which is why I didn't try to. I certainly think it helps.

At worst, the presence of the system (the tesla system specifically, since there are no real drawbacks re: aesthetics) will help your house sell. At best, someone will be willing to pay an extra (guessing) $5,000 or $10,000.

In Ontario, can you go solar/powerwall/use that electricity? I thought that wasn't allowed for some reason. i.e. you have a solar roof (tesla or otherwise) tied into a Tesla powerwall, and you use that electricity to supply your home/car charging.

 

[wayner]

Ontario used to have a program called microFIT where they would pay above market rates to you if you installed rooftop solar. I installed a system in 2015 and I earn $0.384/kWh. I could use the power myself but hat doesn’t make economic sense since the most I pay for power is currently about $0.18/kWh at peak times. But there were a bunch of conditions with microFIT, including the max size was 10kW and you were not allowed to store the energy with batteries etc.

But the microFIT program was cancelled as of the end of 2017. I believe they way to go is now net metering where you sell back into the grid and you pay for the net amount of power that you use. As far as I know there are fewer restrictions with that system except that you have to be on tiered rates rather than time of day. With that system the rate for electricity is about $0.14/kWh.

 

[Falkirk]

I've been trying to find out what a new install in Ontario would look like now that microFIT ended but haven't found much. I already have it just curious to know when talking to others about my setup and what they can expect going forward.

 

[wayner]

One of the things that makes this less attractive is the way that the provincial government keeps screwing around with electricity prices. They recently reduced prices so that means that solar makes less sense. I don't know that systems make a ton of sense right now unless prices start to go up to around $0.20/kWh or install prices come way down. The actual panel prices may be going down but labour is going up so I don't know that your installed cost will change. As I mentioned above you have to be on tiered rates, not time of use, if you are on net metering so that rate is currently about $0.14. If you don't want to use net metering you could stay on time of use and save more on a per kWh basis but then you will have wasted electricity if you don't use it all on sunny days.

The good thing is that you will have fewer restrictions not being on microFIT. You can put more than 10kW of panels and you can use batteries, etc.

 

[Falkirk]

I would expect people would now put as much as needed to cover their own usage together with batteries and just go for the minimum costs to be grid connected. I'll look at doing that in 18 years ha.

I'm pretty lucky being on a price advantage plan with Alectra, 80% of the day I'm at $0.049/kWh. Driving electric will be great.

 

[wayner]

Yes - that rate is great for an EV owner. Hopefully that gets rolled out across the province.

Of course all of this may completely change, just like EV subsidies, if the Conservatives win the election in June. Increasingly you don't need subsidies to make solar work, it is becoming competitive in a free and open market.

But "free and open market" and "Ontario electricity" have never coexisted since the days of Sir Adam Beck.

 

[phigment]

One of the things that makes this less attractive is the way that the provincial government keeps screwing around with electricity prices. They recently reduced prices so that means that solar makes less sense. I don't know that systems make a ton of sense right now unless prices start to go up to around $0.20/kWh or install prices come way down. The actual panel prices may be going down but labour is going up so I don't know that your installed cost will change. As I mentioned above you have to be on tiered rates, not time of use, if you are on net metering so that rate is currently about $0.14. If you don't want to use net metering you could stay on time of use and save more on a per kWh basis but then you will have wasted electricity if you don't use it all on sunny days.

The good thing is that you will have fewer restrictions not being on microFIT. You can put more than 10kW of panels and you can use batteries, etc.

I was hoping to ask around some time soon to see what installers are going to do now that microFIT is no longer a thing. They won't be able to use that as a selling point and may have to drop prices in order to make sales. Thoughts on that?

 

[wayner]

It will be hard for them to cut their prices when their labour costs have likely gone up due to the minimum wage increase. They need the Canadian dollar to strengthen to help cut panel costs.

I think it will be a few lean years. There is a theory that retail electricity costs will skyrocket in about five years - that would help justify a net metering system.

 

[wayner]

Maybe this is finally going to happen ...

Job posting suggests Tesla's solar roofs finally coming to Canada

 

[oakvillemike]

Exciting... now just need to convince the wife that we need to replace 4 yr old shingles.

 

[HarleyW]

Maybe this is finally going to happen ...

Job posting suggests Tesla's solar roofs finally coming to Canada

I've looked into the solar tiles and there is no way at the current cost it would ever pay back the difference in roof cost. Even at half the cost of the Solar tiles it really can't work.

For a good part of the year here there is less than 8+- hours of light and a good portion of those days are cloudy.

For a builder grade 25yr asphalt roof you may get 10-15 years, and when replacing after say 12 years it would cost about 7000-8000 with a good 40-50 year shingle. With that you will usually get 25-30 years.

Now if your doing it for "save the planet" reasons, fine but around the GTA it will never pay for itself.

 

[wayner]

What's the delta in cost versus asphalt shingles, and also higher end roofing materials like slate? I have a large house but my roof cost a lot more than $8k - but labour costs in Canada tend to be higher.

 

[HarleyW]

What's the delta in cost versus asphalt shingles, and also higher end roofing materials like slate? I have a large house but my roof cost a lot more than $8k - but labour costs in Canada tend to be higher.

I have no idea what slate would cost in the GTA. Never seen one around there. I've a house about 2600 sq feet in the GTA and the roof cost 8 grand taxes in for 50 year shingle. Sure you can get higher quotes and I had 3 from 7,000-11,000 but the shingle I wanted was only used by the one I choose.

I did get a quote on a steel roof and it was close to 23 grand + tax and had a 60 year warranty (like I or the roofer will be around in 60 years). Loos better but not for the difference IMO. Also don't plan on owning the house that long.

But with our lack of light from Oct to April there is no way to even come close to paying for the difference. I would love solar and a battery backup as the power in that area sucks for uptime.

The solar tiles look 1000 times nicer than panels but I couldn't make the $$ work.

 

[SmartElectric]

Fully Charged on solar roof tiles (not from Tesla):