Will Powerhouse rise from the dead? RGS taps manufacturing partners

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RGS Energy has high hopes for resurrecting the Powerhouse 3.0 Solar Shingle. Today, the company announced strategic partnerships with three companies – Risen Energy, General Polymers Thermoplastic Materials and Creative Liquid Coatings – to help construct the various solar shingle components.

The real question is whether the company can offer a compelling product efficiency for homeowners interested in solar, while keeping the price-to-performance ratio respectable. Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles and long time market interest, proves there is a demand for alternatives to traditional solar panels.

Risen Energy is one of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers – and recently announced plans to to build a 5 GW solar cell and module factory in China. Risen is being contracted to supply all of the solar power components as well the wire harnesses connecting the shingles.

General Polymers has been contracted to manufacture the polypropylene plastic resin for the base assembly. Creative Liquid Coatings of Indiana will to finish the product – fully assembling the solar components, wire harnesses and other parts – before delivery to RGS Energy as a final product. Creative Liquids has experience with prior generations of the Powerhouse.

RGS Energy says Powerhouse 3.0 will have a higher efficiency than preceding designs due to switching to silicon solar cells from thin film products. It also expects a lower price per watt than prior versions of the product.

The company touts over a thousand homeowners benefitting from those prior Powerhouse products. However that represents only 0.05% of the nearly two million PV systems installed in the United States to date.

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