Homeowners to cash in on a free power source - the sun - as a source of electricity.

To satisfy our unending search for ways to provide electricity, we have looked to nuclear power, and watched the huge nuclear plants close down one by one, perhaps because of their potential to devastate life as we know it. Hydroelectric sources force us to re-configure Mother Nature's water flow for our own greedy purposes. And, so far, the average homeowner tends to think of solar power as a cost-efficient way to heat swimming pools. Now, Atlantis Energy has been successfully introducing "photovoltaic" roof tile to the home- building industry as a way for homeowners, builders, and utility companies to cash in on a free power source - the sun - as a source of electricity.

The tiles, called Sunslates, are beoming popular on existing homes (in a retrofit mode) in large metropolitan areas from California to New York. Now new home builders are embracing these environmentally "green" tiles for their new home communities, mostly as an option for home buyers, and the near future may find builders offering them as a standard feature as their popularity increases.

The concept of these tiles is quite simple; a changeout of a certain percentage of planned roof tile to these solar electric tiles will garner more than enough solar power to "credit" your electricity meter during the day (literally spinning your electric meter backwards!), and debiting the meter during darker hours. This is called "net metering". Utility companies across the country have begun to form partnerships with manufacturers of environmentally correct products such as these, footing the cost for up to 50% of the product for builders. The translation of this to the consumer is a winning combination of energy savings, the possibility of a higher mortgage loan amount to the buyer, and an unending source for that entity that is crucial to so many facets of human life - electric power.

Steve Coonen, Vice President of Atlantis Energy, Inc., reports, "The beauty of this system is that homeowners can "make" all their own electric power. This is a completely renewable source of electricity, and can garner 90-100% of the electricity needed to sustain the average home. Builders love it because it can be installed by their own subcontractors, doesn't lessen the curb appeal of the home, and meets local and national building codes (NEC, UL, ICBO). It has a 50-year roofing warranty, offers individually replaceable tiles, and has no moving parts. "

Consumers literally can get more "bang for their buck" by having the photovoltaic roof tile on their new home. Buyers considering homes with this system, may take advantage of the various loan programs giving "extra credit" in the form of a higher loan amount because of the predictably lower utility expenditure. This makes it possible to make a sizeable dent in the upgrades they otherwise may not have been qualified to add to the loan. These "tier" programs are already in place with many utility suppliers and are even called the "energy efficient mortgage" in some locales.

The future holds no limits for products such as these, where the forces of nature can be successfully used in their raw form to provide us with our never-exhausting demand for electricity. And when utility companies, builders, suppliers of products like Sunslates, and mortgage companies all work together to make our lives easier, it seems we may on the right track for the next millennium after all.

Published: November 27, 1998

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.