MIDLAND -- Solar shingles is not a new disease, but Dow Chemical Co. hopes they spread like gangrene.

During the past year, engineers, scientists and others at Dow Solar Solutions -- a $50 million investment -- have worked at a photovoltaic facility, a retrofitted former research and development building in the company's sprawling 1,900-acre complex here.

Their goal is to produce thermoplastic solar roof shingles for sale throughout North America. With President Barack Obama's insistence on renewable energy and conservation, the time is ripe for such an enterprise, said Robert J. Cleereman, senior director of solar development for Dow.

Using thin film photovoltaic technology, Dow intergrates solar cells with shingles. By 2011, officials expect to begin selling the product with its partners -- home builders Lennar Corp. of Miami, Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills and Jefferson City, Mo.-based Prost Builders Inc., and Global Solar Energy, a maker of flexible materials.The "Solar America Initiative" team has conducted numeorus tests in preparing the shingles for market.

"We've thrown everything you can imagine at them from (simulated) hail to fire to see how they react," Cleereman said.

"One day, a person would no more think about buying a house without solar shingles than they would buy a house without plumbing. That is our hope, at least."

At the center of the project is a $2.5 million injecting and molding machine nicknamed "The Beast" that converts solar cells into finished shingles.

Huge reductions in energy costs for consumers, goverment subsidies and/or tax breaks, and even free installation and materials are possibilities as solar consumption evolves, Cleereman said.

"I can see utility companies paying for the roofing for customers," he said. "It would save them money on building power plants because the solar shingles can act like individual little power plants."

The solar power industry has mushroomed 35 percent a year for the past decade. Government incentives have sped up the pace of solar power installations in several countries, including Germany, Spain, Japan, China and the United States.

For the Great Lakes Bay Region, the technology could mean billions of dollars of investment and hundreds of jobs at Dow.

"Easily," Cleereman said. "It just has to take off."

John Russell, president and chief operating officer of Consumers Energy, said alternative energy makes up 5 percent of the utility's power pool, and he expects the figure to grow to 10 percent by 2015.

"We are the leaders," he said, "and we want to lead the way."