Dow to manufacture thermoplastic solar roof shingles

Dow Chemical Co. has announced plans to start selling power-generating roof shingles by 2011.

The chemical supplier has been at work for the past year on a US$50 million project called Dow Solar Solutions.

The company’s scientists and engineers are working to develop a product to sell thermoplastic solar roof shingles throughout North America.

Dow Chemical is collaborating on the project with three American-based home building companies. 

“We’ve thrown everything you can imagine at them from (simulated) hail to fire to see how they react,” he said in a press release. “One day, a person would no more think about buying a house without solar shingles than they would buy a house without plumbing. That is our hope, at least.”

At the center of the project is a US$2.5 million injection molding machine nicknamed “The Beast” that produces the solar cell-imbedded shingles.

The marketing for solar shingles will be shaped by government subsidies and utility policies, Cleereman said.

“I can see utility companies paying for the roofing for customers,” he said. “It would save them money on building power plants because the solar shingles can act like individual little power plants.”