Archive for March, 2013

Direct To Roof: NRG Skirts Utilities Taking Solar Panels to U.S. Rooftop

Via Bloomberg, an interesting article on NRG Energy – the biggest power provider to U.S. utilities which has become a renegade in the $370 billion energy-distribution industry by providing electricity directly to consumers. Bypassing its utility clients, NRG is installing solar panels on rooftops of homes and businesses and in the future will offer natural […]

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Higher Ground: World’s Second-Largest Rooftop Farm Takes Root In Boston

Via NRDC’s  Switchboard blog, a report on a new rooftop farm taking root in Boston: The aptly-named Higher Ground Farm will open this spring on the roof of the Boston Design Center.  It will cultivate an amazing 55,000 square feet, or a little over an acre, on top of the Design Center’s renovated old warehouse, […]

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Cool Blue Roofs Could Save Energy And Money

Via Celsias, an article on how cool roofs could save energy and money: A national “cool” roof campaign could save some 5.7 quad of net primary energy valued at $33 billion over the 20-year lifespan of an average roof, according to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Heat Island Group. The Case for Cool […]

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Green Roofs Boost Photovoltaic Panels

Via Triple Pundit, a report that green roofs can boost photovoltaic panels: What is a “green-roof?” Some say the term conjures up images of green vegetation on a building’s roof; others refer to the concept of making a building’s roof green from an environmental standpoint with green energy solar panels. It turns out that green […]

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Rooftop Farming Grows At New Bronx Housing Project

Via Agri-tecture.com, a look at a new  rooftop greenhouse hydroponic farm that opened in the Bronx recently: Sky Vegetables is the company behind the newly constructed 8,000 sqf rooftop greenhouse. Built on top of a new affordable housing development, this project could be the first example of commercial hydroponic agriculture integrated into a residential structure. […]

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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.”