Solar Shingle and Slate

you throw around the word efficency like its water, the definition of efficency is watts out/watts in. Your posted numbers point to about 7% efficient which is terrible. The consumer wants 40% eff and buy them at $1/watt.

Hi Vicini, thanks for your follow up and your comments, I am sorry for my confusion about what you said (I am a chinese and consequently I may not expressed correctly about our Thread), could you please explain your comments in details? I will let you have my follow-up asap. Thanks!

The size points that you can put 5.7 tiles/m²

Is this correct (or is the size you gave the complete size with overlap zones?)

The size combined with the power is resulting in 68 W/m² which is indeed bad.

Actually the norm is to have 8m²/Kw peak, your tiles would need 14.7 m² / KW peak.

How did you measure this?

And when true: the price would need to be really low. (max $10/tile)

In case you offer these kind of solutions you should mention the compatibility with commercial available tiles.

Not quite sure what this product is....is this a weather resistant tile which just happens to produce electricity, or is it a unit which is attached onto a frame which is mounted on the roof? If it is a weather resistant tile intended to replace a roofing slate, then I think I am very interested in its attachment method, its abililty to shed water and handle ice, and how long it is expected to last and I am willing to give up a lot of efficiency if I have to! Lets face it...the tile has to go up there anyway, and any trickle charge you might get from it may well be a bonus. For instance, can my contractor step on it as he moves up the roof to repair the chimney? Do you need a plywood roof underneath like asphault shingles, or can you mount it on the rafters with purlins like you do with slate? What would be the cost per square including plywood, and special attachment screws. How heavy is it? Do I need my engineer to build special heavy rafters to accomodate the weight? How does it compare to ceramic?

I am sure I can think of other questions, but this will do for now. China is a land which uses ceramic tiles on all its old buildings, and I know that wind storms knock these tiles off from time to time, and the wind rattles and cracks the tiles. Have you found a way to attach the tiles so that this does not happen?

This is frighteningly similar to a product showcased in another previous thread this week (a day or two ago) that resembled the appearance. But I think the output was better... Y'all might well want to go a-searching for that one. Something about solar shingles...

These are not the only attempts to integrate PV with traditional tiles.

In fact a glass tile could be used: the solar cell could be created on the back of the glass substrate.

Here is the link to the tiles mentioned erlier this week in a reply.

http://www.solarcentury.com/products/solar_thermal/c21t_solar_hot_water_roof_tile

WELL LETS FIRST ASK HOW MANY AND HOW COST EFECTIVE IS THIS TO POWERING A 200 AMP HOME , AND HOW WOULD THIS BE INCORPORATED INTO A HOME IN THE SOUTH EAST TX. AREA.

what is the cost at Watts, i.e., $/per watt output, installed?

Also lifetime of this product. to get a ratio of payback.