Red Tape and Installation Prove Biggest Challenge to Solar Today

"Every hole in the roof is a dagger through the heart of the house". That's a problem. Roofs, as building elements, suck. Walls and foundations can last for centuries. Roofs have trouble in 20-30 years. Solar panels add unplanned loads to roofs and involve holes through them. Some tile roofs can't even be walked on without damage. There's no roof standardization. Hence the problems of home rooftop solar.

Commercial roofs are in some ways more promising. They tend to be flat, and much stronger, designed to support air conditioning units and other mechanical systems. But they have other problems. One big one is that the owner and tenant are usually different parties, and there may be complex tax shelter arrangements in place.[1] Negotiations become very complicated.

There's interest in new roofs which are solar panels, and there are "solar shingles", but those are not in widespread use yet.

[1] http://www.solarindustrymag.com/issues/SI1501/FEAT_01_Commer...

I had a system installed last month, and the costs were about 1/3 labor, 1/3 non-solar panel hardware, and 1/3 the panels themselves.

This points to limited utility of further price drops on solar panels, unless the associated hardware and labor requirements drop as well.

I'm curious how much skill it currently takes to install a panel and if some system can be designed which is only 50% more difficult/dangerous to install than a new set of gutters.

I suspect I'm probably wrong since I've not done anything more complicated on a roof than tarpaper and shingles.