The recent hailstorm destroyed our roof. The roofing guy said it was one of the worst he had ever seen. We were stuck at the airport but neighbors told us it was golf ball sized hail for about ten minutes. Everyone said it was the worst storm they had even been in. Glad we weren’t home.

i checked my new solar panels, which were horizontal and right out in the open. They took a direct hit but were fine. This didn’t surprise me but it did surprise my neighbor. He seemed to really not believe the storm that dented the heck out of his cars and wrecked roofs didn’t take out solar panels. Told him he could look but he wasn’t interested. I also had a look around the neighborhood. A few folks have rooftop solar. None appeared damaged.

i joked that we should just build roofs out of this stuff. Then I wondered, would that make sense? So just ballparking it my new roof is going to run maybe $10 per square foot. Seems reasonable. But what do solar panels cost? A quick Google says $4 – $10 a square foot. And they will survive the next hailstorm. And make lots of electricity. Why aren’t we doing this?