A growing trend we’ve covered before here at EarthTechling around home-focused solar energy is attempts to make solar panels, realized right now as large and expensive items placed on your roof, to be smaller and less expensive for average consumers. Outfits large and small are jumping into the lucrative potential of this market, with Dow Chemical being the latest to showcase this type of technology.
Dow announced yesterday its new line of PowerHouse Solar Shingles, designed to be more easily integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingle materials. Each shingle actually hosts low-cost, thin-film CIGS photovoltaic cells which harness solar energy for a home’s use. These shingles were developed in the wake of the formation of a solar business unit within the company, created in part from $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “building integrated” solar arrays for the residential and commercial markets. Dow said it expects limited amounts of these shingles to be available by mid-next year, followed by a wider roll out in 2011.
image via Dow Chemical
