A Non-Standard Story of Solar Shingles

When I first covered renewable energy a decade ago, solar shingles were the Holy Grail. It was what everyone said they wanted to make. A solar shingle would be as efficient at creating electricity as a solar panel but would go on just like a regular roof, with a nail gun.

A lot of people tried and failed to create the product. Home Depot tried selling homeowner-installed solar panels. Elon Musk built a billion dollar “Gigafactory” in Buffalo, New York, supposedly to make solar shingles.

But at the truncated Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, a game-changing solar shingle finally debuted. Its story is almost as interesting as the technology.

The shingle is called Timberline. Sandia Labs helped develop it. The manufacturer is GAF Energy.

The shingles are slightly bigger and much heavier than conventional roof shingles, but they go on the same way, with a nail gun. GAF says it has invested $1 billion into the product, which converts 22.3% of solar energy hitting it into electricity. 

GAF itself may be more interesting than its shingle. It was once the U.S. arm of I.G. Farben, the Nazi chemical company seized after World War II.  Under Jesse Werner, it became a big roofing company in the 1980s. This included an outfit called Rubberoid, which owned an asbestos mine in Vermont. (Oops.) Under the name G.I. Holdings, it went bankrupt in 2001 but was still paying out to victims in 2011.

Along the way Werner lost control of GAF to Samuel Heyman, one of the 1980s’ leveraged buyout kings. Heyman negotiated the asbestos settlements but, after a lifetime of wheeling and dealing, died in 2009 at age 70. What remained has the low profile name of Standard Industries and is run by two sons in law, David Millstone and David Winter. (Winter has since divorced.) They made news last year with the $7 billion takeover of W.R. Grace, which had also been caught up in the asbestos mess. It was a cash deal that resulted in a huge debt offering, the kind of leveraged buyout that would make Heyman proud.

The bottom line is that the GAF shingles are a big deal to the two Davids. GAF needs this to be profitable so that the debt from the Grace deal can be paid and the company can continue to grow.

Good Democrats aren’t supposed to root for people like this. But if the two Davids can make every roof a solar roof, bless their greedy little hearts.