The world needs more energy to continue developing. UNs SDG no. 7 – access to clean affordable energy, is key to other development areas, and to develop sustainably, we must reinvent the way we produce, transport, and use electricity. Currently, according to IEA, approximately 50% of global electricity production is from fossil origin. To reach our CO2 reduction goals and reverse climate change, we must invest in renewable production technologies like solar on large scale as well as in smaller formats.
Urbanization is a major trend in the world and electricity use in cities is rapidly increasing, building electric production capacity represents a major challenge as space availability for powerplants is limited. Using available roof top space for the installation of solar technology in cities and densely populated areas has the potential of making a great positive impact bring benefits because one use already available roof space to produce electricity – no need for additional investments in the grid and the investment cost is shared with the prosumer.
E-tile+ addresses these needs, and the overall objective of the project is to mature, qualify and enable a swift market launch and scale-up of our revolutionary solar roof technology with the overarching aim to become the new reference for solar roof technology in Europe and beyond.
Our disruptive E-Tile+ solution is the first solar system made of real roof tiles and it is truly a BIPV (Building Integrated PV). It has the same size, shape and appearance as normal roof tiles. It offers the same functionality in terms of wind resilience and does not add weight to the roof construction beyond a normal tile. These features, in contrast to standard solar panels or tiles, entail high ease of instalment (40% lower installation time), reliability (i.e. 30% higher lifetime and lower maintenance costs) and safety (<120V operations vs. 400V), as well as increased exploitation of available roof area (30% more). With E-Tile+, 20-30 million roofs across the EU, could be targeted to harvest solar energy. Furthermore, our unique and patented tiles contacting approach (plug-and-play and parallel connection) provides more power output (20% higher conversion efficiency) than today’s solar panels. The latter are connected in-series and thus suffer from shadow effects, high additional costs and danger (high-voltage operations that require specially qualified electricians). Hence, E-Tile+ is a solar system specifically designed for the needs of buildings that need to rehabilitate the roof and new buildings. E-Tile+ solve the current issues of traditional PV roof panels and give homeowners a long lasting solar producing roof with low maintenance and keep the building safe from rain, wind and snow.
This FTI project will mature E-Tile+ in terms of performance, manufacturing cost, production yield and ensure full qualification of our product for its launch in our target markets, with a Business Plan adapted to guarantee a fast and sustained market entry. TilePlus project will address the solar roof market. We will argue that E-Tile+ can be installed on 13,700 roofs, while providing 142GWh in year 5 post-project.
