Lumeta expands solar roof tile production with Suntech
Lumeta on Tuesday announced a manufacturing deal with Chinese solar panel producer Suntech for Lumeta's solar roof tiles.
Under the deal, Suntech will supply solar modules for Lumeta's building-integrated photovoltaic roof tiles.
A power-producing roof.
(Credit: Lumeta)Lumeta's Solar S Tile, launched earlier this year, looks just like terracotta concrete roof tiles but are covered with a solar cell that generates electricity. Lumeta, a subsidiary of DRI Companies, announced the supply deal at the Solar World 2007 industry conference.
The solar industry is pursuing building-integrated photovoltaics as a way to reduce the cost of solar electric installations.
One advantage of solar roof tiles is that they don't look any different from a regular roof. However, it is unclear whether they are as economical as traditional solar panels.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
