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Going Green: More Solar!

One day, I’ll write one of these posts and not mention Tesla or Elon Musk. Today is not that day. Next one isn’t looking great either. Who knows, maybe 2018. Probably not.

Sistine Solar co-founder Senthil Balasubramanian says Tesla’s work on solar energy and storage will be a “game changer.” Which is kinda like saying people walking around in Seattle will probably carry umbrellas. But there it is, one expert hailing Tesla and the mastermind behind it, Elon Musk, game changers.Solar! Cheap, awesome, all encompassing solar.
I feel like Elliot Gould’s character from Ocean’s Eleven, explaining the unbreakable defenses of a casino vault. “They got cameras, they got locks, they got watchers, they got timers, they got vaults, they got enough armed personnel to occupy Paris!” Except I just replace all the words with solar and call it a day.

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Going Green: Tesla’s Solar Roof

For those looking at building green, become acquainted with Elon Musk and his company Tesla. They are doing for green technology what Google is doing for the internet, which isn’t to say they’re the only or best source, but that they’re the big kid on the block. They have the money and ability to make large steps forward, or test multiple new technologies that benefit several different fields.

One of these steps forward is their upcoming Solar Roof, a slick piece of tech that is slated to revolutionize the residential solar energy landscape.
Solar energy is one of the largest growing job fields in the United States. It is, likewise, one of the swiftest developing systems in green energy. Initially, solar energy was a bit unwieldy, large, heavy, difficult to install and actually not super efficient. But today, with powerful lithium storage, new photovoltaic cells and ever more efficient manufacturing, solar panels are easier to install and can “break even,” which is to say they are able to produce as much energy as is required to make them, in two years or less.
Now back to Tesla. Using these new manufacturing techniques, combined with their own lithium breakthroughs that have gone into powering their Tesla line of automobiles, they’re on the cusp of releasing their Solar Roof. The thing with the Solar Roof is that it doesn’t look like a bunch of solar panels tacked onto a regular roof. It looks like a roof.
From the street, to the naked eye, Tesla states that the panels of their Solar Roof do not look like panels at all, but from above, the panels are fully exposed and gobbling up that sweet sun energy your lithium storage devices crave. So far, Tesla’s offering smooth, glossy black tiles, ripply-looking textured tiles, slate and even those brown, wavy Tuscan tiles. All these tiles top out at 325 watts.

Now, this Solar Roof isn’t the only solar option out there, but it might be the prettiest or at least the least obvious. Panasonic also offers panels that also output 325 watts, with an efficiency just over 20%. There’s also a crazy looking contraption that incorporates solar, wind, water and basically any other means to gather energy into a single roof, but that’s the subject of another entry.

Until then, you can go to tesla.com/energy to check out these Solar Roofs (roof has stopped looking like a real word now) and other energy goodies. I’d go over to the column here and subscribe to this blog so you can see the other fun toys I’ll be talking about later.

Introducing: Going Green

There’s a lot of go-to phrases attached to the word green. And as a writer, more specifically a writer who’s work is meant to grab a reader and link him or her to a topic they are interested in but may know little about, go-to phrases are the bread and butter, the workhorse, if you will, dragging the reader through the transition from enthusiast to know-it-all.

But back to my original point: the word green’s got a lot going for it. Color of money. The shade of envy and, by extension, the variance with which you judge the grass “on the other side.” The color you get “around the gills” when you’re not feeling well. Green thumbs. Greener pastures. Green light. Now, if I wanted to be cute, I could keep going, or I could promise how I could link all these into some article that essentially had nothing to do with any of the phrases themselves. But I’m just making a point. For such a small word, there’s quite a depth of content.

The concept of building green is just like that. People have been talking about green living or building green in some form or combination of the two since as long as I was old enough to care about the scientific mechanics of the world, the stuff that makes the wind blow, the complexity of purifying water and how all the junk we leave behind somehow makes its way into those same mechanics and gum up the works. The subject has only grown since then. Layers and layers of details, techniques, understanding and then research that clarifies or outright reverses that previous understanding. And it’s only getting crazier.

This may sound like a long sell, but honestly, I’m just trying to foster an appreciation for how deep this winding rabbit hole goes. Even though green building has been around for as long as it has, the movement in its advancement, the sheer volatility in discoveries – it’s like there’s a whole new theory or some new gadget that’s going to change how we look at capturing and storing energy, or the efficiency of the whole procedure coming out every month.

Stuff is getting sleek. Gone are the days of bulky solar panels thick as slabs of sidewalk cement. Living green now isn’t equal to being in a shack in the woods. Current homes are all but indistinguishable from their non-green counterparts, and when you can tell a difference, the look is classy, modern, at home in a swiftly changing, technology based society. And it’s only going to get better.Modular solar panels that basically install themselves and can be taken with you if you leave the house. Batteries to store all that solar power, not filled with lithium or lead, but salt water. Thin, light-weight insulation that offers better protection from the elements than stacks of the traditional variety. A power hub that helps regulate the transition from AC to DC current with the intent of being cheap, efficient and easy to use. Weird, bendy pipes that are super easy to install and don’t make your water taste like plastic. A self-cleaning roof that combines all sorts of different energy systems into one, providing enough power for six people, increasing ventilation and lighting, along with a number of other neat tricks. Hubs that control lighting, heat and cooling that can be controlled from your phone and monitor your habits to save you every penny possible. Even a solar powered riding lawnmower.

This is not the typical blog-in-three-parts. Going Green will offer snapshots into the constantly shifting world of energy efficient technology. When we find cool new ways to make your house do what it does, but better and safer, you’ll find them under this heading. When we hear of something that takes your house a step closer to being the starship Enterprise, you’ll get to read about me geeking out over it here.

Take a chance to hit the subscribe button over there in the column so you don’t miss when something new drops. As fast as this market is, if you don’t catch it right away, you’re likely to miss it.

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