It had to happen at some point. Traditionally solar panels have been fixed to the existing roof of a home but manufacturers of roofs in Australia are now starting to integrate the solar panels into the roofing materials prior to installation.
This new sector of the solar panel industry is called building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and is growing rapidly as roofing manufacturers incorporate solar panels in such things as facades, skylights and roofs.
One of the benefits of BIPV in comparison to normal solar panel installations is, of course, that the cost of the usual materials used to construct the likes of a roof would be lower as the volume of such building materials would be reduced as BIPV’s would be used instead- i.e. roof tiles.
In Australia this has already been used in the construction of CSR House that is a ¾ bedroomed house built by CSR Building Products Ltd. It is a 2012 BPN Sustainability Awards finalist being a showcase for innovative building techniques and materials that includes the
Solar Tiles
(image credit: jingdianjiaju)
system providing an integrated solar photovoltaic system on the roof producing 1.5kW. This property was constructed to generate greater levels of energy efficiency.
The Monier SolarTile was made to blend in with Monier’s standard range of roof tiles and is capable of being as effective as solar panels that are added to a roof after the roof has been constructed. Aesthetically it looks excellent.
Another benefit is that there is no disturbance of the tiles that you would get when installing solar panels on top of a roof as there is no requirement to drill any holes and the Monier SolarTile is capable of being installed in strangely shaped sections of roof and small areas. These tiles also weigh 25% less than conventional roof tiles.
In July 2012 it was announced by the Federal Government in Australia that they were providing a grant of $2.3 million with a view to assisting BlueScope Steel in their development of steel roofing BIPV. It is forecast that this could result in Australia becoming the leader of BIPV systems throughout the world.
