June 9th, 2009

Use Solar Cell Roofing Tiles to Produce Free Electricity





When solar cells are used to provide electric power, system design  including installation  is important. In particular, the installation method has a large effect on the cost of the solar cells. Thus, solar cells that are unified with building materials have been developed. The main merits of such integration are:
- Installation does not require additional land.
- No structure is required to support the solar cells.
- The solar cells also serve as building materials. This picture shows a photograph of the external appearance of this type of solar module installed on a roof. The roofing tile modules were jointly developed by Sanyo Electric and Asahi Glass.  The dimensions of the glass tile that serves as the substrate is 305 x 305 mm. It weighs the same as a conventional tile of same shape, but is three times as strong. The feasibility of direct fabrication on this kind of curved surface is a unique feature of thin-film solar cells. Solar shingles, which are solar cells unified with ordinary slate shingles and their appearance as installed on a model house shown in next picture. Installation on this model house show that the essential points in installation are about the same as for slate shingles and the appearance is quite familiar.




Tags: solar cell roofing, solar cell tiles, solar roof, solar roofing, solar shingles, solar tiles