Solar power, sans panels

The main way for homes to harness solar power has been through bulky panels added to the rooftop or mounted on the ground.


But companies are now offering alternatives to these installations, in the less conspicuous form of shingles, tiles and other building materials that have photovoltaic cells sealed within them.

“The new materials are part of the building itself, not an addition, and they are taking photovoltaics to the next level, an aesthetic one,” said Alfonso Velosa III, a research director at Gartner Inc and co-author of a coming report on the market for the new field, called building-integrated photovoltaics.

Companies are creating solar tiles and shingles in colours and shapes that fit in, for example, with the terracotta tile roofing popular in the Southwest, or with the gray shingles of coastal saltbox cottages.

SRS Energy of Philadelphia is making curved solar roofing tiles designed to blend in with Southern California’s traditional clay tiles, said Martin R Low, the chief executive of SRS. A solar tile system that met half the power needs of a typical California home would cost roughly $20,000 to install after rebates, he estimated, or about 10 to 20 percent more than solar panels providing comparable power.
A different solar material for the roofs and sides of buildings is being produced by Global Solar Energy of Tucson, Arizona. Atomized layers of a photovoltaic coating called CIGS are deposited in layers on a thin sheet. “We provide the film, and other companies like Dow take it and design it into a product,” said Timothy Teich, vice president for sales and marketing. Akhil Sivanandan, a research analyst in Chennai, India, for the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, said government subsidies would speed adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics in the United States, as they already have in Europe.