August 2008

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PV rising The roofing industry incorporates improvements in photovoltaic technology by Riaz Hasan Rate this article       Please login in order to rate an article. User name   Password     Click here, if you need to register for a Professional Roofing account. Be the first to comment

The numbers are staggering. According to the International Energy Agency, worldwide energy consumption is expected to increase nearly 25 quadrillion British thermal units by 2030. This carries an estimated price tag of $10 trillion for electricity generation, transmission and distribution assets alone.

And consider these facts from the 2007 Buildings Energy Data Book concerning U.S. residential and commercial buildings:

• Internal gains, or energy loads, account for as much as 27 percent of a home's cooling load.
• The average new single-family home has increased in size by about 700 square feet since 1980.
• In 2006, 50 percent of all new homes were built in the South, meaning the amount of energy used for cooling is increasing.
• U.S. buildings' carbon dioxide emissions (630 million metric tons of carbon) approximately equal the combined emissions of France, Japan and the United Kingdom.
• Lighting uses more energy than cooling in the residential sector. This emphasizes the importance of breakthrough lighting technologies.

This data underscore the fact that many buildings currently in use are extremely...

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