http://stratco.com.au/products/solar/types/solatop/solatop.asp How the panels look depend a lot on the orientation of the house, the type of roofing and the qulaity of the installation. Panels on the front of a house with terracotta tiles, not so great, but around the sie or back, with a neat and tidy installation, not so bad. I had solar panels on my previous house, a victorian terrace, thin film, flat on the scallion roof and unless they were pointed out no one knew they were there. My current house, Federation, has a red painted corrugated iron roof, the panel are at the back of the house, but don't look too obvious. The long term savings are worth it, so function wins over form for me in this case.

Ours never leaked. We'd installed it, then lived in the house 7yr. The previous skylight was leaking badly when we bought the house, it was one of those plastic dome ones- revolting. It was pretty easy to work out why the flashing had corroded in the old skylight- it was chock full of leaf compost. After that- every year the husband would get up and clean the roof gutters and the gutter of the skylight. Like anything regular maintenance will prevent leaks. I'm not sure what the rules are with cyclone-zones. Velux are made from toughened glass. I'm sure their website would give you this detail. Yeah- they get dirty, then it rains and they are clean again! At one stage we got a little bit of lichen growing, but then in Summer it died and just went away! The dirt/dust never bothered us....it's not like you walk around staring up all the time. It doesn't lessen the impact of the extra light and height.

Scallopini is similar to Dune? The dutch gable's (triangle's) would be better in Shale Grey as would Facia and gutters. Monument gutter ok but could be a bit much. Monument to roof and garage door. Monument to window frames as well rather than black? Depends on builder window company. Scallopini to walls. That way really just 3 colours.

our neighbour used something similar for a covered walkway between house and garage and it's super hot in summer but overheating is also affected by the direction of hot summer sun and shading.. if you're looking for shade without making inside too dark consider solid roofing with strips of transluscent roofing