> When I saw the demo he did at Universal Studios... What I saw was a piece of glass that looked like it had a cell in it. The challenges he’s going to have is, how are you going to wire it? Every one of those shingles has to be wired.
> Roofs have valleys and they have hips and they have pipes. … How are you going to work around that? How are you going to cut that glass? Are you going to cut right through the cell?
The latter question is perhaps answered by the posted article, "Solar Roof uses two types of tiles—solar and non-solar." So Petersen's question is moot, the glass/solar tiles don't have to be cut to fit in a hip or around a flue, that will be done to the non-solar tiles that look the same.
The question of wiring is open: imagine the grid of wires that have to underly that roof, and getting them all put down without a break or a short, by big guys with nail guns (if you've ever watched roofers at work -- it isn't a precision operation).
Then Petersen goes on to say,
> So I would say for the record ... it’ll be cost-prohibitive. ... For $55,000 I can give you a brand-new roof that will last forever — 50 years — and I can give you all the solar you can handle. ... (Musk’s) product is going to be north of $100,000.
The graph in the posted article does not directly address total up-front installed cost, but rather tries to combine cost with some anticipated lifetime energy return -- a procedure with a LOT of variables and assumptions. I would like to see real numbers for a Tesla roof, $/sq.yd installed.
[0] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/04/from-summer-job-to-sol...