Dow Chemical Co. through their Dow Solar Solutions are putting a great deal of their resources, scientific research and money into the development of the development of solar shingles.

Thermoplastic solar roof shingles will use thin film photovoltaic technology to produce a product that could be available to the North American public by 2011. Dow hopes to be selling the solar shingles with its partners home builders Lennar Corp. of Miami, Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills and Jefferson City, Mo.-based Prost Builders Inc., and Global Solar Energy, a maker of flexible materials.

With the insistence of renewable energy and conservation by President Barack Obama the likely market for a product such as these solar roof shingles looks promising.

It is hoped that the uptake of solar shingles as an accepted building material will contribute to cuts in energy costs for consumers and with government subsidies or free installation for purchasing the product will help the development of the technology even further.

Dow is investing $50m to develop its Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing and building materials, says Rich Wells, Dow’s vice president of energy.

“The Dow product will be integrated directly into roofing material to create a solar shingle,” says Wells. “Through our BIPV efforts, Dow plans to bring solar-generated electricity costs below 10 cents/kilowatt [kW] by 2015.