Solar Shingles Coming?

[Ken_McE]

NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co. said on Monday it would begin selling a new rooftop shingle next year that converts sunlight into electricity -- and could generate $5 billion in revenue by 2015 for the company.


http://in.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idINN0536825520091005

Dow itself is a little short on technical details, they call it the "POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle"

http://www.dowsolar.com/products/index.htm

 

[fyrstormer]

I read about these in 3-2-1 Contact 15 years ago. Have they finally made them strong enough to withstand getting hit by a hailstone?

 

[John_Galt]

Yeah, let's see... A material designed to protect the internal materials of a building from really catastrophic weather events (such as hail, sleet, ice, snow, rain, wind) that will now be made out of fragile, expensive, now even more difficult to replace material...



What idiot thought this up? Small wind turbines on the roofs of buildings would be a much smarter, more efficient usage of said real-estate. It has the added benefit that, oh gosh, the wind also blows 24/7, as well as maintaining a higher efficiency of energy conversion than solar.

And now, people won't be able to walk on their (flat) roofs.

Idiots... Reminds me of the patent for an electric car that is recharged by a wind turbine under the hood. Seems like a good idea, if the turbine was meant to use air that would otherwise produce drag anyway. Even sounds ok enough, until you read the description where the author states that no matter what vehicle it is put into, it will allow the car to travel indefinitely, without external recharging...