Elon Musk Shaking Up Solar and Roofing Industries with Solar-integrated Roofs

Musk’s sleek, solar roof tiles are made of textured glass and appear to look like ordinary roof tiles or shingles, but they allow light to pass through onto a solar cell.

On the former set of the television show “Desperate Housewives,” Elon Musk showed us the future he envisions – a smart home powered entirely by Tesla with a sleek, solar-integrated roof, an electric car in the garage, and a Powerwall battery storing nighttime electricity.

Solar panels have been around for many years and roofing manufacturers have attempted to integrate solar into roofing materials before but not with much success. Dow announced this summer it was shutting down its solar shingle business.

So what is different this time? Why is everyone interested in this again and why will it be disruptive to the industry? In talking with Jake Dempsey, Business Development, at JobNimbus, a tech company providing CRM software to help contractors manage and track their jobs, he believes it’s because a really successful guy just got behind the initiative and is waving the flag.

“Elon Musk is brilliant; a smart businessman,” said Dempsey. “His Tesla wasn’t the first electric car—according to a poorly executed Google search, that honor goes to some contested group of people that lived in the mid to late 1800’s. Yeah, they pre-date the Ford Model T. But Musk made them, dare I say, ‘sexy.’”

Dempsey thinks that roofing contractors are ideally positioned and more qualified than anyone else to ride this wave of solar-integrated roofs and here are three reasons why:

Roofing contractors are skilled craftsmen, working with some of the most diverse product mixes in the construction industry

1. Roofing is not for the faint of heart. Not just anyone can walk around the ridges and eaves of a roof and because roofing contractors understand the roofing system, they are uniquely positioned to address any issues that might arise from the installation.
2. Roofing contractors are used to working with other trades. They regularly work with HVAC and other specialty trades and adding an electrician for solar installations should be an easy

“With this renewed enthusiasm behind solar-integrated roofs, now is the time for roofing contractors to tune up their business processes and implement technologies that can resonate with an energy-conscious group of customers who are looking for smart alternatives,” concluded Dempsey.

For more information on JobNimbus, visit www.jobnimbus.com/roofing-software