I remember as a kid I helped my dad roof the house. Well, my “help” consisted of hauling heavy bundles of roofing shingles up the ladder on a hot, humid afternoon and handing them to dad. I wouldn’t dare go on the roof – that’s no man’s land to me. I was, and still am, afraid of heights.
But here’s a bit of news that could get even me up on a roof – Dow has announced a huge breakthrough in solar technology. Roofing shingles that act as solar panels.
“As a roofer is nailing asphalt shingle on roof, wherever the array needs to be installed he just switches to solar shingle,” said a Dow spokesperson. The solar singles can simply be nailed directly to the roof.
An electrician is still needed to connect the completed array to an inverter and to a home’s electrical system.
This is simply amazing news, and Dow will begin test marketing the shingles in mid-2010. I love news like this — the green economy is becoming reality.
If it works well, it could spark a boom in people re-roofing their house in order to gain energy savings. And take it from me, while it’s not a small job, re-roofing your house is something you can do yourself in about a week. If you’re not afraid of heights, that is.
