Solar panels for the home

Saw this post on Akihabara News a few days ago. When I was in Japan a few weeks ago, I noticed a lot more homes with solar panels as part of their roofs. If you go to Japan, taking the Narita Express train from the airport to the city, you'll see a lot of these solar panels on the roofs. These new generation panels look more like the roof tiles, and aren't ugly like the older panels. I'm all for it to be less dependent on foreign oil, save the environment, and lower our bills. If I had a home, I'd pay a bit more to do my part. Frankly, the Japanese seem to be more environmentally conscious when it comes to the use of less oil and energy, so adoption is much quicker. Maybe when oil gets to the $60-80 per barrel range will the American consumer consider this and move towards the right direction. The market seems to have finally accepted hybrid cars; let's hope the same comes true in our homes.

Update: Wired has an article in their May 05 issue about people in the US putting in solar panels. This is great, I'm going to put in solar panels in my future house!