Solar roof tiles are a relatively recent development, stirring the curiosity of many homeowners considering solar installations.
These solar tiles can also be integrated and used along with traditional roofing material, and are hence considered a “building-integrated photovoltaic” (BIPV) system. This is different from solar panels, which are installed on an existing roof.
Solar panel costs are low and slipping ever lower. That means rooftop solar will become increasingly easy for the average person to adopt, and increasingly economically advantageous.
Green Tech Media reported in February that solar had reached grid parity – the point at which installing rooftop solar panels makes equal or better economic sense than traditional fossil fuel and coal-powered electricity generation – in 20 of the 50 states. GTM predicts that solar will be at grid parity in 42 states by 2020, just a little more than three years from now.
Solar plus storage got a big boost this week with $18 million in SunShot Initiative grants from the Department of Energy.
Between the recent climate accord in Paris and a likely deal between Congressional democrats and republicans to extend the solar investment tax credit, the future is looking bright for rooftop solar.
Solar stocks started climbing after more than 250 nations came to a historic agreement this month to take actions aimed at slowing global warming. With the United States standing arm-in-arm with the United Nations at the Paris Climate Change Conference in early December, it’s clear the government will increase its support of renewable energy technologies.
Within the next 14 years, every single roof in Dubai will be covered in solar panels.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, the political leader of the wildly modern Middle Eastern city, announced last week that rooftop solar panels will be mandatory for all buildings in 2030.
The boldest rooftop solar ballot measure in the country was just green-lighted in one of the most unlikely states in the nation.
The sunshine state has hardly lived up to its name as the rooftop solar industry has blossomed and boomed all over the country, leaving Florida and its conservative southern neighbors in the dusky shadows.
Arizona’s largest utility company has withdrawn its request for the state’s regulators to consider substantial new fees for solar customers.
The withdrawal – or rather the delay – comes on the heels of dramatic political battles and accusations of bias among the Arizona Corporations Commissioners.
For the first time ever, residential rooftop solar installations outpaced non-residential solar in the US in 2014. That’s thanks, in large part, to more and more creative financing options for homeowners who want to generate their own electricity, according to a report from GTM Research.
After a year’s hiatus, the fight between Arizona’s biggest utility company and the state’s solar industry is in full swing again.
The Arizona Corporation Commission voted 3 to 2 this week to set a hearing on proposed rate hikes for solar customers of Arizona Public Service, the state’s biggest publicly-traded utility company.
A new California regulation that allows companies to package energy from small producers and sell it on the wholesale market is good news for the long-term viability of rooftop solar.
As utilities push back against paying the full retail rate for the power solar customers feed onto the grid, some expect the popularity of rooftop solar to wane. News outlets this week have noted that the meteoric rise of rooftop solar could slow when the 30 percent national investment tax credit declines in 2016 and as utilities reduce net metering payments.
