Bright Ideas: Color-Changing Roof Tiles and Solar-Panel Highways

Black roofs absorb solar radiation, increasing summer cooling costs and power usage. White roofs would reflect more solar energy, lower summer cooling costs and perhaps reduce global warming if broadly adopted. But in the winter, solar energy — absorbed by a black roof — could augment winter heating and lower costs, especially in colder climates. A team of MIT students http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/madmec-roof.html has come up with a new idea in roofing, called Thermeleon http://thermeleon.com/ — after the color-changing chameleon — that turns white when hot, and black when cold. The tiles use a common polymer that reacts to temperature.

Full Story: http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/730568