CRS has been in business since April of 1996 and has been working on ventures with solar powered roofing material for the past 11 years. We are a C10 electrical contractor and a C39 roofing contractor. We have extensive training with building integrated photovoltaics and are currently working on the academy of science’s 190KW photovoltaic glass project in San Francisco. (see the Academy of Science project featured on our projects section.)
Unfortunately, No. At least not in California. Legislation was passed stating that utility providers are not required to buy back surplus energy generated by solar systems.
Solar energy was first discovered in 1839 by Becquerel (France) with the photo galvanic effect in liquid electrolytes. (See more about the history of solar in our solar solutions center) Since 1958, the first solar array was launched in outer space on the Vanguard satellite. With years of scientific research, solar electric systems will last for upward of 40 years. Most manufactures have performance warranties for 20 years with their products to give you a reliable energy source for many years to come.
The answer to this question is yes, but this answer will depend on several factors including orientation (direction to roof line), size of roof area and budget. Everyone’s solar needs will vary and everyone’s electrical needs are unique, due to the fact that we own different appliances, the quantity of those appliances and our lifestyle of how often we use those appliances vary from household to household.
Yes, in fact we recommend if the roof has less than 11 years of life left, the roof should be replaced before installing your solar equipment. There are just too many dollars wasted to remove solar equipment in preparation for re-roofing 5 years down the line.
Because we live north of the equator, and the sun travels from east to west …. the southern orientation receives the maximum irradiance from the sun for the most amount of time during the day.
Shade is to a solar panel is like holy water to a vampire. Our company uses state of the art equipment to measure shading at your site. This allows us to determine what locations are most appropriate to install a new solar array. This maximizes your dollar investment so you get the most energy produced per dollar spent.
Yes, in fact if you look at the save exact system installed in lets say Pleasanton ( few days of overcast) and San Francisco ( multiple days of overcast) you will find that there is only a minimal percentage difference in electrical production. Please see the data recovered from the California CSI website for the estimated output of a solar system.
You bet, our company works with on grid with battery back up and off grid (Battery bases systems) as well as hybrid systems. We also work with generators and wind power.