Photo: Dow Chemical Company
Living under your own roof could soon take on greater meaning. In fact, you could be living off your own roof, energy-wise, that is, thanks to new innovative solar shingles that Dow Chemical Co. plans to begin selling in 2010.
The solar product can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles, achieving a more pleasing aesthetic than large solar panels, something that will no doubt make them popular with homeowners.
As well, the new shingles require no special skills or solar systems knowledge to install, which will likely make them popular with roofing contractors. Homeowners can save money on installation and contractors can save time due to the fact that the shingles can be installed in about 10 hours, less than half the time required for traditional solar panel setup.
More good news: they will be between 30-40 per cent cheaper than current power-generating systems built directly into a building’s construction (or BIPV-Building Integrated Photovoltaic-systems). These systems, mostly in the form of solar tiles, presently are too expensive for general usage, and are less efficient than solar panels. The new shingles operate at a higher efficiency by using thin film CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) cells.
With so many pluses, and a world waiting for affordable, clean residential energy-generation, no wonder Dow sees potential revenue of $5 billion by 2015, generated exclusively by this one product that may eventually see the majority of us living under our very own solar-shingle roof.
