I am not surprised. I completely get what they were going for, it feels like a product that should just be the default. But the was two major issues with them. One technical, one social.
On the technical side, they required a full roof replacement. This made for a very costly investment with a multiple day installation period. Typical panels, cost a lot less, are just placed on top of the current roof and are done in a few hours. Solar tiles simply couldn't compete with that.
The social side, it is what could be called 'Green Bling'. They just look like a normal roof tile, you cannot virtue signal to the neighbors with that! That probably isn't a huge issue but it wouldn't be insignificant. If you have typical solar panels, you know you have them and so does everyone around you. This isn't a big thing and it is much less now that it seems like almost everyone has them, at least were I am.
the full roof replacement is more a business problem than anything else. When you need your roof replaced, the consumer is captured within a week. How exactly are they going to consistently communicate to the "people who need roof replacement" at any reasonable rate.
They'd basically need to do what roofer storm chasers do and try to hit the pre-replacement consumers. Which, unless you're the installer, just sounds impossible to do cheaply.
on the social side, I don't think that matters to anyone whose serious about both the economics of saving money over the long term or virtue signalling. This sjust sounds like a fox news argument
I am not surprised. I completely get what they were going for, it feels like a product that should just be the default. But the was two major issues with them. One technical, one social.
On the technical side, they required a full roof replacement. This made for a very costly investment with a multiple day installation period. Typical panels, cost a lot less, are just placed on top of the current roof and are done in a few hours. Solar tiles simply couldn't compete with that.
The social side, it is what could be called 'Green Bling'. They just look like a normal roof tile, you cannot virtue signal to the neighbors with that! That probably isn't a huge issue but it wouldn't be insignificant. If you have typical solar panels, you know you have them and so does everyone around you. This isn't a big thing and it is much less now that it seems like almost everyone has them, at least were I am.
the full roof replacement is more a business problem than anything else. When you need your roof replaced, the consumer is captured within a week. How exactly are they going to consistently communicate to the "people who need roof replacement" at any reasonable rate.
They'd basically need to do what roofer storm chasers do and try to hit the pre-replacement consumers. Which, unless you're the installer, just sounds impossible to do cheaply.
on the social side, I don't think that matters to anyone whose serious about both the economics of saving money over the long term or virtue signalling. This sjust sounds like a fox news argument