Archive for April, 2014

Next Step For Solar: Leasing Plus Storage

Via Renew Economy, a look at the next trend in solar – leasing plus storage: Last week, RenewEconomy broke news that Macquarie Group has obtained an electricity retail licence in Australia and that it intends establishing a solar leasing business. We have also seen in the last few months reports that various companies, including Sungevity, […]

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Green Or White? Planted Or Painted Roofs Can Cool Buildings

Via The Conversation, an article on the potential of planted or painted roofs:   It’s getting hot in the city, and our overheated cities are only going to get hotter still as more people pile in and development and energy use intensifies. But planting away the problem could be a surprisingly low-cost solution to create […]

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Fight Over Rooftop Solar Forecasts A Bright Future For Cleaner Energy

Via Scientific American, a report on how – as the cost of solar power drops – more consumers find that they hold the upper hand as utilities fight to maintain paying customers and the relevance of the grid: Americans have begun to battle over sunshine. In sun-scorched Arizona a regulatory skirmish has broken out over […]

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Disruptive Potential Of Solar Power

Courtesy of McKinsey, a commentary on solar power and how, as costs fall, the importance of solar power to senior executives is rising: The economics of solar power are improving. It is a far more cost-competitive power source today than it was in the mid-2000s, when installations and manufacturing were taking off, subsidies were generous, […]

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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.”