OCT 24

We wrote about the lovely solar roof shingles introduced by Dow Solar a couple of years ago and now they're finally going to be available to the masses.  The solar shingles look amazingly like traditional roof shingles and fully replace traditional shingles on the home while generating electricity.

The shingles use thin-film solar cells, which are less efficient than the silicon cells in conventional solar panels, but actually much more durable.  The first state where these shingles will be widely available is Colorado, with large quantities coming to a dozen other states by the end of 2012.

The solar roof shingles have an efficiency of about 10 percent, but if you cover your whole roof in them, you're still looking at a nice power pay-off.  Another bonus is that solar panels of any type keep areas under where they're installed cooler, which means you'll need less electricity for cooling anyways.

Dow has partnered with major home building company D.R. Horton to build homes outfitted three kilowatts of their solar shingles.  The homes will be large ones -- ranging from 2,205 to 4,115 square feet -- and will start at $485,950.  On the green jobs front, Dow is building these shingles in a Midland, Michigan plant and says the facility will create 1,275 jobs by 2015.

via CNET

Comments (9)

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No so great
written by Phung, October 24, 2011

These things have the potential to be a maintenance nightmare. Consider that each shingle must have an electrical connection, there will be a lot of electrical connections on the roof. Unless the connectors are made to a very high specification they will become resistive over time.

A better roof top solar system would use thermal collection and storage with a liquid-gas phase change to drive a small turbine. You would obtain dozens of kW from such a system, not a puny 3kW.

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written by Temk, October 25, 2011

@Phung
I agree its not ideal, but the house gets a more affordable sustainable energy system, rather than a complex thermal collection and storage system linked to a turbine for generation purposes.
I prefer your system concept more, but knowing that many folks just don't keep up with stuff, I think the solar is easiest to deal with. As for the connectors issue, we shall see how that goes. Ideally, I think that we could incinerate our garbage for power generation using a micro incineration system, then have some kind of X kilowat storage system, most house don't need 10 KW storage over night, unless of course electricity is used to heat the house in winter and cool it in summer, then I can see your point. I look at these systems as ways to reduce strain on the grid and compliment peak use times of day.

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Clean (“alternative”) energy
written by Frank, October 29, 2011

This raises some good points. My partner and I blog on the sustainability movement from a business perspective (www.greenbusinessmatters.com) and this is a recurring theme. The crux of the clean energy (wind, solar, geothermal) quandary is building a business case for investing in it. In other words, from a business perspective, what is the ROI? Depending on tax credits and incentives, this tends to be at least 5-7 years. If we hope to see less dependence on carbon fuels, we need to figure out business models for alternative energy that shorten this time. We have the technology and we need the jobs. It seems like a nation that can put a man on the moon should be able to figure this out!

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written by Eddie, November 02, 2011

Are they Hail and Wind resistant? I would love to hear what the Insurance companies will charge for the additional risk.

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Dow Becoming Good Guy?
written by Gardepeach, November 02, 2011

Could Dow, the manufacturer of napalm, Agent Orange, and GMO crops, actually mend its ways and become a protector of life on the planet?

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Teacher Phil
written by Phil Williams, November 03, 2011

I would like to see a solar paint application like the one I read about in Japan in 2008. But stuck in a lesser technically country like the U.S.A. If you knew how advance Japan is you would fall off you seat. I guess these shingles is the next best thing. The Shingles could have thermal bonded connectors and snap into each other like modern interconnecting flooring. Give the house a 3 in 1 punch. Add Wind Vanes on top and thermal panels that produce electricity from heat.

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written by Skip, November 03, 2011

"Another bonus is that solar panels of any type keep areas under where they're installed cooler, which means you'll need less electricity for cooling anyways."

I can not imagine that these would keep the house cooler than would regular shingles, let alone the new "cool shingles".

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Great idea, but needs more work
written by Solar Shingler, February 13, 2012

I love the idea of an economical way to push solar power on the masses, but it seems like these shingles will be more of a gimmick than actual resource. At only around  efficiency I can see these powering a whole house even under maximum conditions, and in the end would be tough to recover your cost of initial set up with the small energy savings they provide.

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written by Cheap, May 16, 2012

How cost per m^2 ???

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