The Next-Gen Utility: When Every Rooftop Is a Power Plant

Via GigaOm, an interesting article on the impact on solar panels, wind turbines, etc. on utilities’ traditional business model.  As the report notes: Will your local utility one day go the way of dinosaurs? Well, as more home and business owners install solar panels, wind turbines and other electricity and heat generating equipment, the roles […]

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Plant The Roof

Via American Progress, an article on green roofs: It may or may not be surprising but one of the best ways to make your house greener is to literally make it greener. Green roofs, or living roofs, offer a number of important benefits not only to the environment but also to home and property owners. […]

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Sun For Rent

Courtesy of The Boston Globe, an interesting report on the economics of residential solar panel leases in Massachusetts: It’s an old energy problem with a new solution: After decades of facing prohibitively high costs to install solar panels, Massachusetts residents will be able to lease the panels for a tiny fraction of their upfront cost. […]

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Solar: Cheaper Than Both Natural Gas And ‘Grid Parity’

Two interesting articles on the economics behind solar PV technology.  First, via CleanTechies, a look at the cost of solar power relative to natural gas and grid parity: It recently became official news that solar power is cheaper than electricity from gas-fired power plants. I asked myself: if natural gas is below grid parity and […]

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Catching Some (ar)Rays: Solar Parking Structures

Courtesy of Solar Daily, an article on solar parking arrays: “…Envision Solar International has announced that it has been selected by Renewvia Energy to be the exclusive provider of EnvisionTrak Solar Tree structures and CleanCharge Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for the company’s growing pipeline of high quality solar deployments. The companies are currently approaching completion […]

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Solar Air Heating

Via Solar Daily, an interesting report on solar air heaters “…Enerconcept Technologies is executing plans for a U.S. market penetration that will make solar air heating available and affordable to commercial, institutional and industrial facilities. The 12-year-old, privately-held firm makes a variety of solar air heaters, including the Lubi, a wall-mounted solar collector with a […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As potential uses for building and parking lot roofspace continue to grow, unique opportunities to understand and profit from this trend will emerge. Roof Options is committed to tracking the evolving uses of roof estate – spanning solar power, rainwater harvesting, wind power, gardens & farms, “cooling” sites, advertising, apiculture, and telecom transmission platforms – to help unlock the nascent, complex, and expanding roofspace asset class.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”