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Elon Musk’s Promise of “Solar Roofs” Has Echoes of a Rust Belt Failure [View all]
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602147/elon-musks-promise-of-solar-roofs-has-echoes-of-a-rust-belt-failure/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Elon Musk’s Promise of “Solar Roofs” Has Echoes of a Rust Belt Failure[/font]
[font size=4]SolarCity’s chairman dropped hints that the company is planning a new product—but it’s been tried before.[/font]
by Michael Reilly | August 10, 2016
[font size=3]As leader of two flashy green-tech companies, Elon Musk has a habit of doubling down on bold claims. And he played to form in SolarCity’s most recent earnings call, dropping an oh-by-the-way mention that the company will be adding “solar roofs” to its product lineup of rooftop solar panels.
As Musk said, those are two distinct things: SolarCity already sells solar panels that go on your roof. With solar roofs, as he says, “It's not a thing on the roof, it is the roof.”
Another word for solar roofs is “solar shingles,” and it’s been tried before. In 2011, Dow Chemical launched its product, Powerhouse Solar, with the aim of adding a new offering to the residential solar market. It was highly touted at the time; as the company’s CEO Andrew Liveris said, it was “integral to Dow's transformation, and a key part of its strategy to invent and innovate new technologies.” The company built a plant in Midland, Michigan, to manufacture the shingles. Former autoworkers were retrained, and hundreds of people were hired.
…
The trouble is, it didn’t work. Last month, Dow announced that it was stopping its Powerhouse Solar program and shutting down manufacturing. The last shingles were scheduled to ship on Wednesday, and the “majority” of 130 workers in the company’s Dow Solar division would be laid off in Midland and Cupertino, California—part of an overall planned layoff of 700 jobs in Michigan and 2,500 globally.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]SolarCity’s chairman dropped hints that the company is planning a new product—but it’s been tried before.[/font]
by Michael Reilly | August 10, 2016
[font size=3]As leader of two flashy green-tech companies, Elon Musk has a habit of doubling down on bold claims. And he played to form in SolarCity’s most recent earnings call, dropping an oh-by-the-way mention that the company will be adding “solar roofs” to its product lineup of rooftop solar panels.
As Musk said, those are two distinct things: SolarCity already sells solar panels that go on your roof. With solar roofs, as he says, “It's not a thing on the roof, it is the roof.”
Another word for solar roofs is “solar shingles,” and it’s been tried before. In 2011, Dow Chemical launched its product, Powerhouse Solar, with the aim of adding a new offering to the residential solar market. It was highly touted at the time; as the company’s CEO Andrew Liveris said, it was “integral to Dow's transformation, and a key part of its strategy to invent and innovate new technologies.” The company built a plant in Midland, Michigan, to manufacture the shingles. Former autoworkers were retrained, and hundreds of people were hired.
…
The trouble is, it didn’t work. Last month, Dow announced that it was stopping its Powerhouse Solar program and shutting down manufacturing. The last shingles were scheduled to ship on Wednesday, and the “majority” of 130 workers in the company’s Dow Solar division would be laid off in Midland and Cupertino, California—part of an overall planned layoff of 700 jobs in Michigan and 2,500 globally.
…[/font][/font]
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