A construction company has developed solar panels that use peel-and-stick technology to attach to roofs.
That's right: Lumeta's Power-Ply 380 is a solar panel sticker. The product's adhesive back allows it to be installed about twice as fast as conventional rack-mounted solar panels. Check out the video to see a speedy installation.
Coming from Lumeta, a subsidiary of DRI, a $90 million a year construction company headquartered in Irvine, the product is another sign that energy generation is being incorporated into conventional building practices.
"Solar needs to become part of the building envelope and this is a step towards that," said Stephen Torres, COO of Lumeta. "The whole idea was [to] create a new product that integrates better with the roof system."
While the panels are lighter and easier to install than traditional tilt-it systems, the downside is that by sticking flat on the roof, they lose the optimal angle to the sun. Torres says that costs his company's panels about five percent of their power production. As is, the panels claim peak power generation of 380 watts (pdf) in a "typical installation."
With energy prices rising to records levels, the amount and variety of solar cells and solar systems is increasing by leaps and bounds, offering new options for consumers and businesses that want to take making electricity into their own hands. So far, Lumeta has lined up several projects totaling about 500 kilowatts of electricity generation that will begin at the end of June. In total, they've got five megawatts worth of panels in the pipeline from Suntech, a major solar cell manufacturer.
While the hassle of installation of solar panels has almost certainly slowed its acceptance, it's not the only hangup for photovoltaics. Most solar systems cost at least $10,000 to install, depending on your state's incentive programs, and you don't make your money back in electric bill savings for more than a decade. So, even with the increased ease of installation provided by these stickers, solar photovoltaic panels probably won't prove the only answer for clean energy generation in the foreseeable future.
The stickers aren't available for home installations, but Lumeta does offer a panel system designed to integrate with those terra-cotta tiles that developers love.
