Archive for August, 2013

Want Solar On My Roof? Go Ahead And Pay Me For It.

Via the Rocky Mountain Institute, an interesting article on how third-party solar financing models are not enough and how more of a smart market approach would foster increased solar power deployments among residential homeowners: In recent years, companies have made great strides in offering third-party financing to bring solar and energy efficiency to residential consumers […]

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Rooftop Farming Gains High Ground In Montreal

Via the Globe and Mail, a look at Montreal’s Lufa Farms: Nothing’s more down to earth than farming, but a new urban farm in Montreal is inspiring designers to think of growing in the clouds. Lufa Farms, on the roof of a commercial building near Montreal’s Marché Centrale, is a 32,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse that’s producing […]

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Largest Solar Rooftop In Europe Complete

Via Clean Technica, a look at Europe’s largest solar rooftop: The largest self-consumption rooftop solar array in Europe has been completed, and it is of course located in Germany. It is eleven hectares in size, consists of 33,000 solar panels, and has a generation capacity of 8.1 MW (which could power up to about 1,846 […]

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Urban Green Roofs Could Ease Flooding Woes

Via the Environmental Research Web, a report on the potential for green roofs to help cities control flooding: For many of us it is becoming a familiar sight: water bubbling up out of the gutter and roads turning to rivers, as urban drainage systems struggle to cope with an intense downpour. As well as closing […]

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First Rooftop Farm In The US Sits Atop Public Housing In The Bronx

Courtesy of City Farmer News, a report on The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development in partnership with Blue Sea Development and Sky Vegetables, launched a new housing project in the South Bronx featuring a rooftop farm. The innovative eco-friendly building offers low-income communities not only affordable housing but also year-round employment […]

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Solar Home Loans

Via GigaOm, a report on SunPower’s innovative new plan to introduce a solar home loan that will complement its effort in the residential leasing market: SunPower executives said Wednesday they plan to roll out a loan program for the residential market, a move that will enable the company to attract homeowners who want to own […]

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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.”