SRS Energy, who have developed a so-called "residential solution" for United Solar (see page 28 of the Investor day presentation), is in full-force marketing offensive. Last week they used a hapless "journalist" to plant a CNET story [cached] containing several false and misleading statements.
 
The article starts with the picture above and the credit reads "Solé Power Tile system developed for US Tile by SRS Energy integrates seamlessly with its terra-cotta counterparts." Presumably, the dark-blueish tiles are "solar tiles that offer style" (at least that's what the title of the article implies). That picture is fake, of course. A total fabrication. No tile on that roof generates any electricity! All the blue tiles are actually red clay tiles in real life (the picture is simply digitally altered in some image-editing software). The picture on the left shows how the actual roof looks like (from a brochure of US Tile). If that is not convincing enough,
a partially altered picture can be found on SRS Energy's web site and in another article [cached] - the vegetation in all these pictures looks exactly the same, which excludes the possibility that the building was reroofed with the blue tiles at some point. It is all one and the same picture, only the roof has been digitally "painted." If you have the patience, you can spot the differences and similarities here.
 
But these are not all the fake pictures SRS Energy can offer. Look at the image on the company's home page , which can also be found in their "sell sheet," and in this story [cached]. A fake, of course. The actual roof is done entirely with red ceramic tiles. Here are the actual and "remastered" pictures side by side: 

You can find the actual picture on US Tile's web site, by clicking on "Why US Tile," and then on "see Faux Mission."
 
The deception and misinformation do not end with fake pictures. Here are some of the statements made in the story by SRS Energy's Marketing Director, who claims to "work for the greater good."
 

• "Cell efficiency for the tiles is between 8 percent and 10 percent." That, of course, is an outright lie (except maybe for a few hours of light exposure - Unisolar laminate degrade rapidly in the first hours and weeks under the sun until they settle to their rated efficiency).