Archive for October, 2011

Bright Roofs, Big City: Keeping L.A. Cool Through an Aggressive Cool Roof Program

Via LegalPlanet, an announcement of an intriguing new report from UCLA Law’s Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment called Bright Roofs, Big City:  Keeping L.A. Cool Through an Aggressive Cool Roof Program.  As the press release notes: “…Cara Horowitz, the author of the report, used a dataset of Los Angeles rooftops and estimated […]

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Sungevity, Sanyo, Vivint, OneRoof, and CPF: A $250M Flurry of Third-Party Solar Financing

Via Greentech Solar, an interesting report on the recent flurry of third-party solar financing: “…Sungevity just announced that Rabobank, a Dutch bank, has established a residential solar fund to support more than $50 million of new U.S. residential solar lease projects. Sungevity is growing fast in revenue and headcount, along with having raised funds to […]

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Solar Power and Which Roof to Use

Via CleanTechies, an interesting article on a new tool being developed to help calibrate a specific roof’s feasibility to generate solar power: A roof is more than a way of keeping the rain off. Nowadays many people think of a roof as a place to put solar panels to collect all of that free sunshine. […]

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What if Every Residential Home in the U.S. Had a Solar Rooftop?

Via CleanTechies, an interesting article on the total PV potential of all U.S. rooftops.  As the report notes: “…Who ever thought that every home in America would have a radio, a television, a phone, a computer, and now a solarrooftop? If it can be imagined, then it can be done. As crude oil price fluctuates […]

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Investors Take A Shine To Rooftop Solar

Via GigaOm, an interesting report on investment interest in rooftop solar: The solar market has been marked by falling profits and controversial federal government loans this year, but one bright spot has been the growth of investors putting money into installing solar panels on the rooftops of homes and and small commercial buildings. Sungevity, based […]

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Rooftop Produce: BrightFarms CEO Paul Lightfoot Wants To Grow Lettuce On Your Roof

Via Fast Company, a report on the potential of rooftop greenhouses: “…If you’re a grocery store, BrightFarms thinks your roof would make a fantastic location for a hydroponic greenhouse. The company designs, finances, builds, and manages rooftop greenhouses for food retailers–to the tune of up to $2 million a pop–in return for a long-term contract to […]

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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.”