My Clean Break column on Monday takes a look at a Vancouver-based company called MSR Innovations that has developed an interesting way of reducing the cost of installing solar on residential rooftops.

Analysts talk about the likelihood that solar PV module costs will fall 35 per cent in 2009 because of competition from thin-film technologies and an oversupply of polysilicon. This is good news for those contemplating solar, particularly developers with multi-megawatt projects on the drawing board. But in the residential market, even in Ontario where a 42-cent feed-in tariff is offered, solar PV is still too expensive and the payback too far off.

MSR Innovations has come up with a new type of roofing system designed specifically as an enabler of solar PV. The system, basically 2×2 foot polymer tiles that are installed on special tracks, are just as affordable as putting up fibre-glass shakes or concrete tiles, and in fact MSR’s tiles can be installed on their own without solar. But if the homeowner wants to add solar, it’s as easy as sliding out a row or two of tiles and replacing them with clear hollow tiles that have PV cells snapped in underneath. The idea is that solar is the roof, and not an addition to a roof. It’s an example of building-integrated PV (BIPV). The goal is to nearly eliminate the cost of installing solar by building those costs into the roof installation.

Anyway, give the column a read for more details. I like MSR’s approach and hope this small company, founded by two former Ballard Power employees, can make some headway with roofing companies and homebuilders, which could easily use this tiling system to make entirely new subdivisions “solar PV ready.”

Tags: BIPV, MSR Innovations, solar PV, solar roofing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under solar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.