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Comment by zizee | Hacker News Reader

I think the grandparent was saying that the super visible solar panels allow the house owner to signal to their neighbors/visitors/friends/family that they are environmentally conscious, thus getting social credit for the solar installation.

I.e. The social cachet from the older style panels being super visible outweighs the reduced asthetic, therefore people will not pay extra for nicer looking solar.

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Is that really such a big thing? And even if it is, it's not like roof tile panels are impossible to know about. For starters, they're not actually completely invisible - you can usually still tell. But more importantly, there will still be construction that your neighbours will ask you about ("hey, whacha building, neighbour?" "oh, not much, I'm just replacing my roof with solar tiles. Y'know, for the environment!") and you can surely subtly brag about it. Word travels fast so everyone around would quickly know and I'd imagine rich people would be far more impressed by someone with a beautiful roof and high-tech solar tiles, than someone installing the same ugly panels everyone and their dog have had since the early 2000s - same level of environmental signaling, but far more impressive.

Yeah, I can't see it having a huge effect. Here in Queensland, Australia, where every second house has regular panels I have never heard of people thinking they confer bragging rights.

Neither the US nor California are anywhere near 50% residential rooftop solar.

The point isn't bragging rights. It's that most people today don't consider solar panels to be an eyesore, and some people actually like the look.

It's just like how the existence of luxury cars doesn't make most people think a Toyota Camry is an eyesore.

> I think the grandparent was saying that the super visible solar panels allow the house owner to signal to their neighbors/visitors/friends/family that they are environmentally conscious

Not exactly. I meant that most people don't think standard PV panels are so unsightly that they would pay a huge premium for solar roof tiles, and many actually like how standard PV panels look.

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