Solar tiles that offer style
Correction at 7:20 a.m. PDT June 23: The energy production of the tiles has been fixed. The tiles can generate 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Solé Power Tile system developed for US Tile by SRS Energy integrates seamlessly with its terra-cotta counterparts.
(Credit: SRS Energy)Will a better aesthetic tempt more people into going solar? SRS Energy is betting on it.
The company has partnered with US Tile, a leading manufacturer of Spanish, slate, and shake roof tiles, to design solar panels with the exact same shapes as their clay counterparts.
The result is solar tiles that can be seamlessly integrated with the terra-cotta tiles on your roof. Instead of the solar panels being on your roof, your solar panels are the roof. Instead of consumers going solar as aftermarket adaptation, the Philadelphia-based company hopes that solar will become part of the architecture and building of residences and commercial properties.
BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) have been around for a while, but many of them fail to visually blend in with the existing architecture. SRS Energy is trying to improve that by partnering with roofing companies to replicate existing roof tile designs into thin-film solar panel counterparts.
The Solé Power Tile system was unveiled at American Institute of Architects 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition this past May at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. On June 15, SRS Energy unveiled one of the first commercial buildings to implement the Solé Power Tile system. The Swiss chalet-like building is Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company, a family-run ice cream parlor in Audubon, Penn., owned by SRS Energy's CEO Marty Low.
US Tile's Solé Power Tile system will begin to be installed in homes this November 2009 by contractors that have taken the company's Solé certification class, the first of which will be held this July, according to Abby Nessa Feinstein, director of marketing for SRS Energy.
The company plans to move into other U.S. and European markets in 2010.
The look of the tiles aside, what about solar efficiency? That's where consumers will have to think about what's most important to them. The Solé Power Tile system, which is warranted for 20 years to generate electricity at a rate of 80 percent of capacity, incorporates triple-junction amorphous solar cells produced by Uni-Solar.
Cell efficiency for the tiles is between 8 percent and 10 percent, according to Feinstein.
That puts it slightly below what others in thin-film photovoltaics have been getting. Global Solar, for example, has said its existing flexible CIGS cells convert about 10 percent of sunlight into electricity, and has plans to get to 13 percent to 14 percent soon. It's also obviously far behind the 20 percent efficiency achieved by efficient traditional silicon solar panels.
Feinstein says the SRS Energy system's overall efficiency makes up for the difference in sunlight to electricity conversion figures.
"If a homeowner bought 4kW of crystalline silicon panels and then 4KW of the Solé US Tiles, they will get 10 to 15 percent more output in terms of a KWh (kilowatt hour) on their electricity," said Feinstein.
"You have three layers of semiconductor material and so it is essentially less picky about the light it converts into electricity so whereas crystalline starts and stops converting between 10 (a.m.) and 4 p.m., our tech will wake up earlier and work later. It converts a larger spectrum of light into electricity. It has less sensitivity to heat, most start to degrade in performance as they get hotter. Our tiles get less hot because the modular is curved and with any curved tile you have air beneath keeping them cooler," she said.
SRS Energy's statistics say the average homeowner with Solé Power Tiles can get 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company sporting Solé Power Tiles.
(Credit: SRS Energy)
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"SRS Energy's statistics say the average homeowner with Solé Power Tiles can get 860 kilowatt hours per square foot annually living in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day."
1 square foot is 0.09290304 square meters. One square meter perpendicular to the sun typically receives 1,000 watts of radiation power. Let us assume that we have 100% conversion efficiency for simplicity's sake:
The total maximum power that you can get for one year from one square foot of area tilted in the optimum way to get 5.8 equivalent direct sunshine hours would be
0.09290304 m2/ft2 x 1000 W/m2 x 5.8 hrs/day x 365.25 days/year x 1kW/1000 watts = 196.81 kWH/ft2/year at 100% conversion efficiency!
AND THEY GOT 860 KWH/sq ft/year!!!
Besides, there is a difference between solar modules being used as a "fixture" or "materials" If solar modules are used as "materials" they may at least contribute to the energy requirements. For instance, "no one expects a payback from their conventional roof and it never contributes to the energy needs ..."
Also there is a park lot shown next to the building. Parking structures with the use of conventional Crystalline and Multicrystalline Silicon Modules should be an option. A parking structure may be able to increase the available area an further contribute to the energy requirements of the structure and provide other features.
This story is patently false, and reveals the dangerous ignorance (or intent to deceive) by the Director of Marketing of SRS and the author of this unfortunate article.
1. The tiles efficiency is nowhere near 8% to 10%. The best Unisolar can do on panel level is 6.7%, and only for a portion of their production. Most of the production results in 6.3% efficiency on tile level.
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/06/unisolar-efficiencies-mystery-of-pvl.html
2. In the real world, there is no advantage that will allow these tiles to get 10 to 15 percent more output in terms of a KWh per KW vs crystalline cells. In fact, given the curvature, they won't be tilted optimally, and thus will generate less electricity per KW than regular crystalline modules. All this talk about waking up earlier,. the light spectrum, etc is a total fabrication. Five documented real-world studies demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged KWH/KW is a myth. See here:
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/06/thin-film-solar-installation-revisited.html
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/kwhkw-myth-part-iv.html
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/kwhkw-myth-part-iii.html
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/kwhkw-myth-part-ii.html
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/kwhkw-myth-part-i.html
3. Commenter Joe Real is correct. It is physically impossible for modern non-concentrated PV system to generate 860 kilowatt hours per square foot. The SRS tiles will generate just 7 kilowatt hours per square foot on an annual basis (calculated as 5.8 W/sq ft * 1200 KWH/KW), at best, in Pennsylvania. That is 99.2% less than what the author claims.
4. texaslabrat & squished will be disappointed, especially since these things will be twice the cost of regular rooftop PV, will NOT be eligible for incentives (Unisolar-based products are not eligible for incentives in California starting July 1st), and will be a fire hazard. As far as lifetime costs are concerned (to answer commenter Harlan879), those will be horrible (no, the SOLAR tiles will never pay off). The original Unisolar shingles, SHR-17 (now taken off the market), also carried a supposed 20-year, 80%-rated-power warranty, but no longer carry the UL certificartion and were shown to degrade in likely violation of their warranty (and then Unisolar simply stopped disclosing degradation data):
See here:
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/06/unisolar-eligible-for-incentives-in-ca.html
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/06/certification-of-safety.html
5. Solar modules obviously cannot be roofing materials (as they cost 10-30x the price of roofing materials per sq ft). The shingles described here are normal shingles with the PV material glued on top of them. Over time, that typically leads to delamination given the different thermal expansion coefficients, and these things will fall apart (become just shingles) well before the 20 years are over. In other words, you pay $35 per sq ft for the solar tiles (just solar tiles, no inverter, installation, etc) before incentives (if any!), and you end up with a $2 per sq ft spanish tile. Not a good prospect!
Other mounting options, may including an awning attached to the structure with conventional Crystalline and Multicrystalline Silicon Modules.
http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/2009/06/marketing-of-solar-tile.html
CNET should strengthen their editorial control and issue a retraction.
- by nylonnek July 8, 2009 8:53 PM PDT
- Thank you ecdfan. To underscore everything you said....I looked for product specs and finding none on SRS or US Tiles site I wonder if any exist. I can only assume that since the specs are hidden the hope is the marketing hype will suffice. Likely not.
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