INTEGRATED SOLAR ROOF
One roof assembly instead of two.
A conventional solar installation is two roofs. You buy shingles, then you buy an array, then you bolt the second to the first through the first. An integrated roof collapses that into one product: the thing that generates power is the thing that keeps the rain out. The design argument for it has never been in question. The supply chain has been the problem, and we know that first-hand.
Tesla's install target
1,000 a week
By 2022 it was managing 20 to 40. That gap, not the concept, is what ended the product in August 2026.
GAF Timberline Solar ES 2
1.7 kW per square
A 57-watt nailable shingle, installed by a roofing crew with roofing tools. Roughly 30 shingles to the square.
Hail damage
Not warranted
Class 4 impact rated, and hail damage is still excluded from the limited warranty. In Minnesota that is the first question, not the last.
Integrated Wins
THE ROOF IS BEING BUILT ANYWAY
New construction, or a roof at the end of its life. You are buying a roof either way, so the comparison is the difference between the two roofs — not the sticker price of a solar system against zero. This is the only case where integration competes on cost rather than on looks.
Panels Win
THE ROOF HAS YEARS LEFT
A sound roof with fifteen years in it. Tearing off good shingles to install solar ones throws away an asset to buy a smaller one. Rack-mount it, and revisit integration when the roof is genuinely due.
Integrated Wins
SOMEBODY HAS TO LOOK AT IT
A street-facing plane, a small ADU sitting beside the house it belongs to, a neighbourhood with an opinion. When the roof is part of the architecture rather than behind it, the premium buys something real, and racking on a small building looks like what it is.
Panels Win
NOBODY SEES IT
A rear plane, a detached garage, a barn. Out of sight, the integration premium buys aesthetics nobody experiences and watts per square foot that are slightly lower. Spend the money on more array instead.
Canopy Wins
THERE IS NO ROOF UNDERNEATH
A pergola, a carport, a covered walk. Nothing is being duplicated, the structure was going to be built anyway, and the translucency buys a quality of light that a solid cover cannot. It is also the cheapest way to find out whether you like living under one.
Frequently Asked Questions
If Tesla couldn't make it work, why would anyone?
Because Tesla was solving the wrong half. A solar roof is a roofing product that makes electricity, not an electronics product that keeps rain out, and the companies still shipping are roofing manufacturers using roofing distribution and roofing crews. That is a far less romantic business and a far more likely one to still exist in ten years.
The survivors came from the roofing side
Doesn't a tight-to-the-deck panel run hot?
Yes, and heat costs output — it was among Tesla's reported problems. Current nailable systems are designed around it, but it is a fair question to put to any manufacturer, and the honest answer is that an integrated roof will generally produce a little less per watt installed than the same cells on a rack in moving air. You are buying one assembly instead of two, not free electricity
Ask for the temperature coefficient and the NOCT rating
We love the idea — can you deliver it?
That is the right question and it is the one we got wrong in 2019. We will tell you the lead time we have been quoted, who the installing crew is, and what happens to the schedule if the product slips. If we cannot get a straight answer from a manufacturer, we will say so rather than sell it.
Delivery is specified before the design is
How we evaluate one
BEFORE THE DESIGN
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Named product, named installing crew, quoted lead time
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Written warranty terms, including the hail exclusion
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What the homeowner's insurer says about the assembly
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Whether the roof is due for replacement anyway
DURING THE DESIGN
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Roof planes measured against the array, not the other way round
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Shading study for the actual site, trees included
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Conduit and inverter locations set before framing
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Snow shed, ice dam and eave detailing around the array
WHAT WE WON'T DO
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Quote a production figure without a site-specific model
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Sell a product we cannot get a lead time for
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Tear off a sound roof to integrate solar into it
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Let the array decide the roof geometry