| | | <The issue of roof life compared to solar panel life is also interesting.... I note there are absolutely zero homes in our area with roof solar panels.>
As you say, it is a different story in the SW... wrt roofs, the primary factor in roof life here is the constant exposure to the sun. I put a new roof on our house 2 years ago not because of any damage (or leaks) in the traditional sense, but because the sun had literally broken down the composite shingles of our 26-yr. old roof such that they looked like a coarse shag carpet in spots. The only other considerations we have here wrt roofs to a lesser degree than sun damage is fire resistance and ability to survive earthquakes (i.e., concrete/ceramic tiles are best for sun and fire considerations, but not good in an earthquake, etc.).
Over half of the roofs in our neighborhood have solar water, electrical or both on their roofs. We have not installed either simply because we plan to sell the house in the next year or so (maybe sooner) and didn't see any payback in our case. However, the neighbors tell us that it is expected their roofs will actually last longer here with the solar panels shielding the shingles from sun damage.
Also, more and more businesses and local gov't. facilities have installed large solar arrays in their parking lots that provide shaded parking in addition to the power generated -- and many are also sporting charging stations with more being installed all of the time.
The paper ran a story the other day that there is now enough solar generation here to completely replace the amount of power the now deactivated (and scheduled demolition of) nuclear power plant on the coast in Camp Pendleton -- naturally, their are still issues replacing that power source as the system operators have a trickier time balancing power delivery when the source is solar vs. nuclear (remembering that power systems must deliver exactly as much electricity as is "demanded" from moment to moment), but advances in both integrating solar into the grid coupled with storage capabilities are improving that situation steadily. SDG&E reports they are 6 years ahead of schedule in terms of building out their planned solar generation capacity (they also operate several large solar installations including that other-worldly Ivanpah solar-thermal generation out in the Mojave just south of Las Vegas).
If you haven't seen that Ivanpah solar-thermal plant, check it out -- it really is hard to believe your eyes when you see it up close from the freeway... NRG is the operator (located right here in Carlsbad) and SDG&E has part ownership and distributes the power... you can see pics here: en.wikipedia.org |
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