Comments on: Toshiba Home Solar Power Modules Get 19.3% Conversion Efficiency

By: Okayama Solar Absorbers Use “Green Ferrite” to Generate Super-Cheap Electricity from Heat | CleanTechnica

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:33:12 +0000

[…] Energy nRelate.domain="cleantechnica.com";Okayama Graduate School of Science and Technology is one of many developing solar cells and batteries, but its research team, led by one Professor Naoshi Ikeda, […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:28:00 +0000

That tile picture did not suggest a workable solution to me. I can see why the market didn’t like it.

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I’m watching for the first company that introduces a ‘full roof’ system where people with south-facing “side away from street” roofs can be tuned into a great big solar array.

Build the house with the proper slope on that part of the roof, install roof sheeting, and screw down a weather-tight solar skin.

Build the roof trusses with ‘crawl space’ or better access to the bottom of the connection boxes. All the wiring would be inside the house skin and fully protected from weather.

Include skylight and door sections which could be added as desired. Opening skylights or doors which would give access to cleaning off the panels if needed.

Set owners up as providers for the utility companies. Or sell the houses with long term roof leases not unlike the way farmers and ranches lease land for wind turbines.

That would make one’s home cheaper to own, home as income producer. And it would distribute a lot of electricity to surrounding homes, cutting down on transmission needs.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:29:00 +0000

Hey,

Sorry, all comments with links get caught & must be moderated. The image has been changed out now. I’m not sure if it was a legal reuse, but it clearly wasn’t the right image choice. Unfortunately, I’m out of town and don’t have much time to look into this further but have a slightly more appropriate image up now.

Thanks,

By: ECD Fan

ECD Fan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:08:00 +0000

Bob_Wallace: The spam filter didn’t like my original post. The solar tiles pictured here are not Toshiba’s. They belong to a company called Tegolasolare/AREA. URL is http://www.areaindustrie.it/tegolasolare Tegolasolare/AREA apparently failed in marketing this product, for obvious reasons (the shadows kill performance, the rain creates shortcurcuits, and the cost to manufacture these 4-cell modules is horrendous):

By: sola

sola — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Yes, the panel placement is pretty weird on those images.

I am not even sure that the image and the article belong together. The article talks about 240Wp modules which is obviously not the case with the above tiles.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 04:53:00 +0000

1. Why are the cells mounted so high that the above tile partially shades it?

2. Would you want to leave your laptop out in the sun while the battery charged?