Solar Panels That Look Like Roofing Tiles

Solar panels that generate electricity are usually not particularly attractive. Technology Review has an article on panels that have been on the market for three years; they generate electricity but look like roofing tiles:

Homeowners have long been able to partially power their homes with sunlight, but it meant clumsily mounting photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof. Now the latest generation of PV panels look and act much like ordinary roofing tiles or shingles....

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Around 500 square feet of PV tiles can produce three kilowatts of electricity, according to Subhendu Guha, president and chief operating officer of United Solar Ovonic, a maker of PV shingles in Auburn Hills, MI -- and most roofs are several times that size. His company's version is dark blue and can blend with ordinary shingles of a similar shade. Or a builder might devote an entire sunny section to PV materials.

"A south-facing roof on a three-bedroom home could supply 20 to 30 percent of the home's electrical needs," says Paul Maycock, a consultant and head of PV Energy Systems in Williamsburg, VA.

The more flexible and aesthetic the tiles become, the more they probably will be used for other purposes as well. In the southern United States, they might power streetlights (with a battery pack) or signals. Retail centers might attract extra customers by advertising that their stores are powered by tiles that everyone can see. A sturdier and shock-free kind of tile that's embeddable might be used on roads, or if that's too much daily pounding, then they might be used on road shoulders. There are many possibilities.

If the United States could lead in this kind of technology, there are even near-term opportunities for trade and the opportunities might not necessarily be limited to the federal government or big corporations. For example, computer manufacturing technology in the state of Washington might help in the expertise needed to make solar tiles, but in the western part of the state of Washington, it's too cloudy and too far north to make much use of the tiles. Perhaps the city of Seattle could make a trade, let's say with a place like Mexico City (Mexico is an oil producer) where Seattle would pay for these tiles to be installed in Mexico City in exchange, let's say, for natural gas for a certain number of years. Mexico City would get less pollution and Seattle would get a usable energy source. This example may be a little far-fetched but I think it shows that there are opportunities if Americans can think creatively.