SolarCity shingles are designed to look identical to conventional roofing and lower overall solar roofing costs compared to the use of solar panels. According to Inc. magazine, "While no specific prices have been revealed yet for Tesla's roofs, Musk says they'll cost less to install than regular roofs. They'll also last about 50 years, double the lifespan of regular roofs, and provide better insulation."
However, very few specific details on the new solar shingles have been released and analyst Matt Zielenski cautions that there are still a number of roadblocks to success in the solar shingle market. Roadblocks that leading developers like Dow Chemical found insurmountable. Prices for rooftop-mounted solar panels — the key competition for solar shingles — have fallen sharply over the past decade due to technological innovations and increasing global production and are expected to remain low. Disagreements between electricity providers, homeowners, and state regulatory agencies over the impact of "net metering" may also slow solar's market penetration. And it remains to be seen whether these shingles can deliver the cost savings and performance they promise.
The Residential Roofing market is forecast to reach over $10 billion by 2020, according to Zielenski in a new study from the Freedonia Group, but almost none of those sales will be attributed to solar shingles. "Solar shingles are still at least 10 to 15 years away from having a significant impact on the US roofing market as a whole." However, as with Tesla vehicles, in the shorter term "there are sure to be high-income or environmentally conscious early adopters who want to be at the forefront of technology and if Tesla's solar shingles are able to reduce installation costs as much as promised for these customers, more cautious consumers may be willing to add these products to their homes in the future".
http://www.freedoniagroup.com/industry-study/3436/residential-roofing.htm
