talking about flush mount solar reminded me....
I got to meet a tech guy from Dow's new solar division recently. Their strategy is that PV cost/W is rapidly becoming irrelevant, and installation cost will be the driver in the future.
Enter the solar shingle: http://www.dowsolar.com/
The cool thing is that they did a demo where they contracted to put a new roof on some test houses with local roofers, gave the roofers the solar shingle product and something like a 15 minute training video, and then had the newb roofers install it. The shingles even have instructions embossed on the back in spanish, russian and polish. The shingles have a little edge-edge connector, so the current runs along the rows, and you pick it off the ends.
You still have an electrician come and wire the inverter and the line to the roof array.
No water or elec problems on the test houses after a couple seasons--they go on sale in volume next year I hear.
Getting PV could be as easy as picking that kind of shingle the next time you re-roof, at an extra $1/W for the shingle, and no extra install cost for the array! Currently, installers often tell folks getting PV to reroof first, so that they won't have a new array on a roof needing new shingles. This would just cut out the array installer part. OR make it more DIY-able.
I got to meet a tech guy from Dow's new solar division recently. Their strategy is that PV cost/W is rapidly becoming irrelevant, and installation cost will be the driver in the future.
Enter the solar shingle: http://www.dowsolar.com/
The cool thing is that they did a demo where they contracted to put a new roof on some test houses with local roofers, gave the roofers the solar shingle product and something like a 15 minute training video, and then had the newb roofers install it. The shingles even have instructions embossed on the back in spanish, russian and polish. The shingles have a little edge-edge connector, so the current runs along the rows, and you pick it off the ends.
You still have an electrician come and wire the inverter and the line to the roof array.
No water or elec problems on the test houses after a couple seasons--they go on sale in volume next year I hear.
Getting PV could be as easy as picking that kind of shingle the next time you re-roof, at an extra $1/W for the shingle, and no extra install cost for the array! Currently, installers often tell folks getting PV to reroof first, so that they won't have a new array on a roof needing new shingles. This would just cut out the array installer part. OR make it more DIY-able.