Long before Tesla/SolarCity announced its new solar-roof products last month, Dow launched its PowerHouse Solar Shingles in 2009, designed to integrate directly into the roof. By 2011, the company’s “groundbreaking” product was struggling to survive. This summer, with the product no longer viable and a pending merger with DuPont looming, Dow decided to stop making the PowerHouse entirely.

Sabic along with three companies specializing in in-mold labeling (IML) introduce the use of certified renewable polypropylene (PP) resins in high quality mono-PP thin-wall container packaging. And that’s without compromising quality, processability, safety or convenience.

As a homeowner interested in an architecturally acceptable (shingles vs panel) solution to PV generation, I remain confused by “plummeting cost” in solar equipment production and my inability to find distributors and installers in the Midwest. There are plenty of panel installers emerging, but my house is a perfect south facing ranch in need of a new roof, and I don’t want to buy a new roof, then overlay a panel system. Any ideas and advice are welcome.

Abdullah Al-Otaibi, General Manager, ETP & Market Solutions at Sabic, says: “The demand for in-mold labeled packaging is constantly growing across various different consumer market segments, as it provides major opportunities for cost effective and highly sustainable solutions. Together with the responsibly sourced and certified renewable polymers from our TruCircle portfolio, this flexible decoration technology has enormous potential in fully recyclable mono-material packaging with no compromise on shelf visibility and consumer appeal in the retail space. At the same time, it can help manufacturers and brand owners reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint while addressing the need for preventing valuable used plastic from ending up as waste.”

Five years after Dow Chemical promised to change the way people thought of solar shingles, it sold the last of its manufacturing equipment to an unknown buyer.

Once the conventional PV sites are tapped out — if that ever happens — the value of solar-generating windows, walls and roads will increase. Until then, BIPV frequently amounts to paying a premium for less of a return. That math has already killed a long line of companies.

The timing of the final sale is ironic, given the hoopla surrounding Tesla’s solar-roofing products, which are expected to into mass production next summer. Roof-integrated solar has been a goal for at least the last seven years, and no one has been able to move the needle enough to make it the centerpiece of its business.

John, you make some excellent points. Our team is planning to support the proper installation of Aesthetics Solar Roofing (ASR).

The online auction house Hilco Global  announced the equipment, including plastic-injection molding machines, solar-cell welding systems, glass washers, sun simulators, laminators — among other equipment — had been sold. Neither the buyer or the financial terms of the sale were  disclosed.

The label material for the IML containers is a biaxially oriented polyethylene (BOPP) film produced by Taghleef, a leading global supplier of films solutions to customers worldwide, using a Sabic certified renewable resin tailored to the BOPP process. BOPP films are widely used for in-mold labeled injection molding applications in food, dairy and beverages, home, beauty, and personal care packaging. Taghleef offers transparent, white, and metalized PP label films, all of which can produced using polymers with bio-based feedstock.Furthermore, they can easily be customized to meet specific needs of gravure or offset printing for desired haptic textures and visual appearance, from glossy, matt, orange peel or velvet feel to an entirely non-label look.

Products exist for flashing, taping, gluing and sealing skylights, windows, air condition hatches, and kinds of rectangles to our rooftops. What the solar industry lacks are general contractors who know how to properly flash and seal roofing systems. Instead, we have installers who know a little electrical and not alot of roofing whom target going after the low hanging fruit, driven by a subsidy business model that shortcuts traditional design-bid-build construction processes. If our past decade of “NABCEP”-driven subsidies had instead targeted roofing contractors with 10+ years roofing experience, and if our “green collar job” education grants had targeted architects/engineers instead of community college students, we’d have general contractors building true solar rooftops by now.

Giorgos Karydakis, General Manager at Karydakis IML S.A., states: “With this collaborative initiative, we are demonstrating the feasibility of bio-based materials in the production of high-quality IML labels. We offer our customers a wide range of attractive printing options for cups, tubs, jars, shakers, and pails in sizes from 50 mL to 50 Liters, including additional digital watermarking with material information in line with the European HolyGrail 2.0 initiative for smart automated mechanical recycling.”

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Proper training of installers and a global infrastructure of independent contractors is the key . We plan to support them with equity crowdfunding.

we are a Lebanese company working in brick and construction materials and I saw your company portfolio and we are interesting in your product. so please we would like from you to contact us via email: chtoura@mcic.company we are waiting your replay as soon as possible.

As part of the present collaboration, the final BOPP label film is supplied to Karydakis, a leading specialist in optimized printing techniques, ink formulations and conversion technologies tailored to PP-based in-mold labels. The company’s sophisticated process delivers high-quality labels pre-printed with captivating designs and branding elements to match end customer specifications and ensure the effortless integration with the containers throughout the molding process.

Collaboration with Taghleef and two other companies debuts first in-mold labeling solution with certified renewable polymers for food packaging containers.

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Augustinos Kotronis, General Manager at Kotronis Packaging, explains: “In-mold labeling offers substantial productivity benefits, since it eliminates the need for separately applied adhesive labels on the finished packaging product by forming a permanent, tamper proof bond with the container right in the mold. In addition, the renewable container material from Sabic complies with all relevant international standards for food-contact applications, while showing excellent processability on our machines, including high flowability for reduced wall thicknesses. Moreover, it meets with our targets for reducing both carbon dioxide emissions and fossil consumption.”

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Cut to shape for stacking, the IML labels are finally supplied to Kotronis, a medium-sized family business specializing in injection molded containers for foods. The company facilitates efficient in-mold labeling of cups and tubs in a seamlessly integrated and fully automated, single-step process.

“Our BOPP film range for in-mold-labeling gives brand owners a wide choice of premium packaging finishes to enhance brand differentiation and shelf visibility with a low environmental impact,” explains Monica Battistella, sustainability manager, Taghleef. “In combination with the sustainable nature of Sabic’s mass balance certified renewable polymer from second-generation feedstock, the exceptional printability, die-cutting, anti-static and non-stick properties of these films deliver maximum value throughout the entire life cycle of the labeled products, including end-of-life recycling.”

The single-step IML technology achieves a seamless part decoration right in the injection mold, where the label becomes an integral component of the packaging itself. Dedicated label film types and high-definition printing technology result in a very attractive and cost-effective decorative solution. Besides using certified renewable PP resins for both the molded parts and the label film, the resulting packaging can be recycled in existing rigid PP recycling streams.

Instead, our protectionist solar import tariffs stifle innovation, while shoveling subsidy dollars over to the utilities who attack distributed solar, while stoking a political climate which has put Rick Perry as the head of the DoE.

As Julian Spector at GTM Research wrote this summer when Dow originally announced it would no longer manufacture the PowerHouse shingles:

Dow announced on June 28, 2016, that it will cease manufacturing POWERHOUSE modules. As part of the transition to cease POWERHOUSE operations, we will no longer be providing design services for new projects. Dow will continue to support warranties issued on existing POWERHOUSE Systems.

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When your labor force is comprised of installers who know very little about roofing, how can the product be integrated into the roof?

Elon Musk is now betting Tesla/SolarCity’s future that he can buck the trend Dow’s PowerHouse solar shingles pioneered. As Dow’s solar shingles business gasps its last breath, the industry awaits to see if Musk’s intuition is correct.

BIPV isn’t failing because of a lack of job sites – it’s failing because solar has not bridged the general labor gap due to subsidy-driven economics.

With the final sale of its manufacturing equipment, the chemical giant’s dreams of leading a solar-roofing revolution have officially ended.

John, you know well about this product. Ocean View, Delaware I have a home that … desperately needs a new roof and I do not want to get the normal shingles if I can get a Solar Shingles that it is awesome to hear that exsist .. with the right co. to install it. Do you know any Co. in that area .. zip code 19970 and my cell is 703-624-0027