We have always thought that roof tiles should contain solar cells; it seems like such an obvious, no-brainer idea. But around most neighborhoods are houses with ugly Sputnik era looking solar panels bolted onto the roof next to rusting satellite dishes. This tableau is usually peppered with a mess of overhead wires, at least half of which have been out of service for years.

Now look at these pictures from Tesla.

OK granted, they're highly retouched photo-illustrations, but there's a reason artists don't put things like overhead wires into idealized art… nobody likes them. Why do we allow public utility companies to drive our aesthetics anyway?

So somebody finally got around to making those dream roof tiles and, of course, it was Elon Musk. The Tesla / SolarCity roof is a beautiful, functional roof that provides renewable electricity production to your house. They simply engineered the tile and solar elements together to make your building look better instead of worse.
The roof can be customized for different home styles, and the photovoltaic cells have been engineered to be invisible. The whole roof doesn't have to be solar… perhaps the North facing side under the big tree should be regular tiles. Tesla has you covered. Simply choose which sections of the roof will contain glass tiles embedded with the highest efficiency photovoltaic cells, while using matching non-solar tile on the rest.

When combined with Tesla Powerwall, the solar roof can power an entire home with 100% renewable energy. Excess energy can be poured back into the grid.

Note to Elon Musk: can you put tiny water-wheels inside of plumbing pipes…