Welcome to your weekly solar news report! This week, we’re going to take a look at the beautiful new residential solar panels from Solaria. Hopefully if you’re truly interested in residential solar, you wouldn’t let a silly thing like aesthetics hold you back. But wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to sacrifice the look of your roof to get the benefits of a residential solar system?

As it turns out, homeowners are deterred by the aesthetics of solar panels. In fact, one study shows that for a whopping 40% of potential buyers, aesthetics is the most important variable in choosing solar panels. Solaria understands this, and creating better-looking panels is one of their three big focuses for the coming years. They’re doing pretty well so far with their all-black, 370 watt 20% efficiency panels currently available (pictured above). To refine even further, they are working with railing manufacturers to reduce the profile of the panels. And they are exploring the option of removing racking entirely and integrating panels right into the roof at the time of its installation.

What this means

With companies like Solaria driving innovation in the residential solar market, it’s easy to imagine a future where all new homes have solar built right into the roof. In the meantime, for those of you who just can’t get past the look of traditional panels, you can give Solaria’s all-black model a try. Read the full article >

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