In US homes, solar panels get aesthetic makeover

New York: Bulky and obtrusive rack-mounted solar panels may be a thing of the past.
   Spurred by recent advances in technology, solar panel makers are scrambling to come up with neater and cleaner products that will overcome the aesthetic objections of home owners to traditional solar panels.
   They are building their technology directly into different kinds of roof tiles, hiding them in walls and lining the tops of patio awnings with them. “Bottom line, people don’t want goofy looking roofs,” said Julie Blunden of solar panel manufacturer SunPower Corp.
   SunPower is making solar panels designed to work seamlessly with both flat roof tiles and the curved, Spanish-style
clay tiles popular in parts of California and other sunny places. SunPower, controlled by Cypress Semiconductor, is the leading US manufacturer, but has half its sales in Europe.
   Lumeta, a division of DRI Energy, has similar integrated panels in the final stages of industry certification, manufactured by China’s Suntech Power Holdings Corp.
   Both SunPower’s and Lumeta’s panels are made using silicon, the same raw material used in solar panels since the 1950s. Advances in technology using a new semiconductor called copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) promises much thinner panels that are easier to hide.
   For now though, thin-film panels are less efficient than silicon and manufacturers such as DayStar Technologies Inc are focusing on the commercial market because of economies of scale.
   “Because it’s capital-intensive, the way to get cost down is to get volume up, so the thin-film manufacturers are looking for more high volume production applications — that’s how you can get the cost parity to silicon,” said Bret Adams, a spokesperson for DayStar. AGENCIES

 

FINE FINISH: A home under construction in Temecula, California, uses new solar technology that allows thinner solar wafers to be designed into the shingles