Best Inventions of 2009: The Solar Shingle

TIME’s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting.

The Dow Chemical Co. has developed a new roof shingle that doubles as a solar panel. The shingles, which can be incorporated into rooftops alongside traditional asphalt shingles, use low-cost thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide.

While Dow expects to profit greatly from the Powerhouse Solar Shingle – the company predicts it will bring in as much as $10 billion in revenue by 2020 – there will be significant benefits for consumers too.

The innovative shingle is expected to cost 10% to 15% less than traditional solar panels and will be cheaper and quicker to install.

Photo by Dow Chemical.

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