GAF Energy’s easy-install photo voltaic shingles intention to outshine Tesla roofs and conventional panels – TechCrunch

Putting photo voltaic panels on the roof is more and more practical for the common house owner, however they are typically specialised, aftermarket affairs or else whole-roof replacements. GAF Energy, a division of the roofing large, claims its new solar shingles are easy sufficient to put in that no particular tools or information is required, making house renewable vitality that a lot accessible.

Solar shingles aren’t themselves new, however are typically a bit extra sophisticated of an set up than simply riveting a panel to the roof with a couple of inches of area beneath. Instead, they change the shingles themselves, performing as each roofing materials and photo voltaic panel array.

Many of our readers shall be conversant in Tesla’s foray into this area, the imaginatively named Solar Roof, which makes use of photo voltaic shingles however, like others, wants a particular workforce and is principally a whole-roof alternative. If you solely needed to switch a broken patch with 30 sq. toes of panels, Tesla isn’t an possibility, and different photo voltaic shingles won’t be capable of be put in by your native roofer.

GAF Energy hopes to alter that with its Timberline Solar, introduced in the present day at CES, which it says could be put in by any roofer with a nail gun. GAF Energy president Martin DeBono described the shingle as “the only product to integrate solar technology into existing roofing processes and materials to yield a full-fledged solar roof, enabling mainstream deployment of clean energy via traditional roofing channels.”

You may marvel why, in the event you’re already going to the difficulty of getting photo voltaic put in in your roof, you don’t simply roll with it and get the specialist. It’s going to be costly anyway, proper? It’s true in a method, however the price is coming down for each side of getting a photo voltaic roof, and each greenback shaved off makes it practical for a couple of extra prospects (as Aurora Solar’s COO Sam Adeyemo noticed to me final 12 months). Not solely that, however specialists are inclined to congregate in inhabitants facilities, that means people in rural areas, the place photo voltaic may truly be extra sensible, face larger prices and decrease availability.

The firm famous that its photo voltaic shingles set up similar to common roof shingles, aside from exposing {the electrical} contacts on the upward facet to allow them to be simply accessed (don’t fear — the entire thing is as weatherproof as an everyday roof too). You may even stroll on them when it’s time to wash the gutters. The firm is the primary to obtain UL’s new “building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solar roofing certification,” UL 7103.

It’s simply one other step from photo voltaic roofs being an costly, advanced choice to a traditional one accessible to anybody and possibly even one that can pay itself off in time.