If you are not going to sell your solar product to individuals at a fair price as opposed to wholesale selling only to corporations, then you are irrelevant. People want energy independence - Freedom from the pollution grid and relief from elitist blood sucking. So do the right thing. Sell to us, not just to them.

I agree... these types of easy to install systems have to become available to consumers in off the shelf retail environments.

Residential consumers should only need an electrician to setup/install/upgrade their electrical panels and the required interconnects. After that residents should be able to mount and connect their panels as the video clearly shows in a very easy and straight-forward manner.

Hi Merkhava! You're absolutely right about the irrelevance of commercial-scale solar - just because it's the fastest-growing sector in the global renewable energy market and has the greatest chance of rapidly reducing pollution, why should businesses provide that service - especially if it doesn't suit your very specific needs?

I suspect that, given your expertise and ideas on how to solve this pressing issue, you could probably be a successful solar entrepreneur. There is plenty of opportunity to convince investors of the greatness of your ideas.

elitist blood sucking? Umm.... sorry I just had to repeat that.

Actually, we elitists prefer to drink blood - sucking is messy and somewhat uncivilized, though there are regions where it's still considered appropriate.

2.25KwH unit on a commercial building? Wow, that'll cut down pollution. Office lighting alone must run several factors higher than that. Whereas three of four of these on a residential building would make a difference, and word would spread fast. Assuming they're not taking the piss on pricing.

If I'd paid for that install I would have two comments for the guys who installed it:

1. Stop walking on my expensive solar cells.

2. Get your toolbox off my expensive solar cells.

These comments are for the most part extremely negative. At least recognize the positive here people: solar energy is becoming more and more viable! That's good news no matter how much you people want to stink it up.

I would like to thank M Lewis and T Roaster for including some delightful sarcasm in a much needed criticism of the "if you cant solve everything all at once with one single solution RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX on your first foray into the COMPLEX and expensive energy market, then please go screw a goat you capitalist overlord serving single-celled coward" dumb-ass-internet-troll-scape.

Can I stick one of these on my back to power my iPod?

yea works fine on my itouch, unlimited battery!

idiot.....

Renewable solar energy, especially this system, will over time become more accessible to consumers. But for now, I say let the corporations get it first. They are the ones who are using up most of the energy anyway. It's a trickle-down effect. Be patient my friends.

"I would like to thank M Lewis and T Roaster for including some delightful sarcasm in a much needed criticism of the "if you cant solve everything all at once with one single solution RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX on your first foray into the COMPLEX and expensive energy market, then please go screw a goat you capitalist overlord serving single-celled coward" dumb-ass-internet-troll-scape."

Haha... can I hire you to write insults? Good ones.

Certainly any step toward simple installation that doesn't involve poking holes in rooftops is welcome.

The problem with businesses dropping off the grid first is that it means higher, not lower, prices for households, as the power companies struggle to balance costs with declining incomes. So, I share the frustration of the first poster, in being effectively barred from being able to preemptively drop off the grid first.

That being said, it's like complaining about being charged a fee by a boat that's come to pull you out of the ocean and rescue you. I'll still take the rescue.

This article doesn't mention the disadvantages of peel and stick: radically reduced output from the cells due to very high temperature (no air current behind them to cool them), increased cooling load on the building (dark surface transfers heat into roof), and the higher cost of the "modules." I'm not sure the reduced installation time necessarily makes up for these shortcomings.

how many panels do i need for 1.21 gigawatts?

how many panels do i need for 1.21 gigawatts?

You can't do 5th grade math?

Then you don't deserve the technology.

2.25 kilowatts / 6 panels = 375 watts per panel

1.21 gigawatts / 375 watts = xxxxxxxx panels

my office building runs about 7840 KwH 30days

muddyh2o - Nice "Back To the Future" reference. I think some of the edified posters here didn't get reference.

muddyh2o - Nice "Back To the Future" reference. I think some of the edified posters here didn't get reference.

If I remember correctly from the book, it was 1.21 jigowatts.

Some of you have some bad information. I happen to work for a general contractor, in the Bay Area, where one of the DRI Energy offices is located (and where this video was shot). These proprietary panels are going through UL Listing and have passed all the major test and are slotted for distribution in June of 2008. These panels are available to the residential public, but, do not have a very good application for a comp or clay tile roof. For DRI Energy's "Residential Solutions" you need to visit their website at: http://www.dricompanies.com/ResidentialSolutions.aspx. They have unique patents on both s-tile and flat tile solar solutions...

Looks like progress to me.
I'm in the UK so we don't have huge amounts of sunshine but I'm not going to let that stop me - let me know when I can buy them in the UK and I'm in.

Actually there is already a pretty good peel & stick technology out there - I just installed a ~4.8 kw system on the roof of my home in Miami Beach - checkout the blog if you want www.3001northbayroad.com

Hey... I agree with everybody that wants cheap solar at home. I would like that too... but this is great to see happening.

Why? Not just because it is a step in the right direction for the planet, but for consumers as well.

The busier the solar sector becomes, the more demand AND competition for the technology.... it may take a little while, but look what happened with microwave ovens.

When that new technology came out, the product options were first sold for commercial use, were light-years behind what most American homes now have ( as far as ability for use) and cost a small fortune to purchase. Now microwave ovens are pretty inexpensive... but it took having a market for the product for the product to evolve and for there to me an economy of scale to reduce per-unit manufacturing expenses.

This looks like it has real potential...

if it can save a few million acres of fragile desert wilderness, i am totally on board. residential and commercial point of use applications must be included - it's remote "utility scale" projects that need to be SCRAPPED for a million reasons (entrenching monopolies, increasing costs, waste, manipulation, fires and unreliability, environmental devastation, groundwater depletion, etc.). let's get these things up NOW! and get on those legislators to start offering us a few of the huge advantages they give to Big Energy!