Man, that is a hugely misleading headline when casually glanced over. Not 95% efficiency; 95% of other panels…
Typical panels are about 20-24% efficient. So these roof tiles are like 19-22.5%. Not bad.
compared to regular solar tiles
That’s why I editorialized and added that bit
People are just not paying any attention whatsoever.
Wouldn’t you want them all to be black to maximize effectiveness? Damn marketing. In the not too distant future daily talk shows will have segments on which colours are fashionable this year for solar panels.
Sometimes historic buildings have a strict code to follow, this might help to modernize them while keeping the historic aesthetic.
But why? It’s not about heat absorbtion but photon collection
I’m no solar panel expert, just using common sense. If it is not heat conversion then I’m whistling in the wind. Black absorbs more heat, more quickly, but if it is not about heat, just light, then ignore this.
Check out why Einstein got his Nobel Price. That’s the fundamental mechanism behind solar panels. It has nothing to do with the absorbtion of heat. If you use solar to heat water, that’s a different type of solar collector
Energy at certain wavelengths hits the solar cell and migrates electrons in a flat plane. Thin wires grab those electrons to make current. Heat actually reduces the efficiency.
Solar panels that absord heat exist, those panels are used to heat water. For PV you want to capture photons that kick electrons from the valence band into the conduction band of the material to get an electric current. Basically the inverse of an LED, you turn light directly into electricity. Any heat here is wasted energy. The PV cells are optimised for specific frequency bands and in those bands they don’t reflect well. If you want to capture visible light the panels are appearing relatively dark.
Actually, photovoltaic solar panels work more efficiently when cold, heat makes them less efficient. I’ve read.
The ability to have energy generation from roof tiles is so damn cool!!! The solarpunk future is becoming more true every day, and I’m all for it!
It’s a waste of money. Most of the tiles will be in shade. PV panels are better and easily replaced if damaged by weather.
And roof installations for panels are expensive to put in and take out, and need to be taken out to replace roof shingles/tiles under them.
This tech might end up being the best of both worlds for roof panels because they have the potential to remove the frame from the equation.
deleted by creator
Tell me they’re not shiny enough to melt vinyl siding and I’m sold.
When can I buy them?? I’ve been reading about roof tile panels for ages, but I’ve never seen on win real life.
Maybe because the ones demonstrated by Elon Musk were made by an LA prop shop and never existed.
or, you know, you can just put them somewhere else and use cables to transport electricity to the house, like it was done the last 100 years.
Instructions unclear, bulldozed public spaces to build a parking lot with a solar roof over it.
Will try again with nearby farmland.
On my way to buy a plot of land to save on energy bills 🚄
Have you ever been on a hot roof in summer? At least this puts that necessary but otherwise unused surface area to use.
Yeah, but they aren’t doing that very fast. So gotta buy my own.
Still a great piece of tech. I think decentralizing power generation is better for both land use and for the individual.
These panels will be nice for areas with strict architectural laws
20% is what standard photovoltaics were doing a decade ago. I cannot wait until these are standard on all roofs in a few decades.
Edit: Yes I know the title is misleading, I’m saying these colored roof tiles are performing on par with the setup many Americans installed 10 years ago at the height if the subsidies.
It’s 95% of regular panels, so it’s 5% worse.
I would go with regular panels in that case, unless they are shaped like tiles and can provide better coverage of the roof. 5% efficiency drop but 15% coverage increase could be worth it. But I expect install costs would be quite a bit higher
They still are, on average. This headline is just poorly worded or outright misleading.
Imagine this + electric cars working as grid storage.
deleted by creator
The article talks about colored graphics that can be applied to a panel. So not panels that are shaped like tiles. So they are still normal panels but with colors on them. So these are probably usefully for facades, like the side of a tall building.
