{Forwarding a quick message from Robert} "As I mentioned in a recent News episode, we're moving all our home energy focussed episodes from the Fully Charged Show channel over to here on the Everything Electric Show channel - and this episode is a refreshed edit of a very popular release. We hope you still enjoy it, and as always, if you have been, thanks for watching!"

We desperately need more of this.

This is the way to build a solar roof. Not as an after thought but built in right from the start. Love it and wish the company every success. Thanks for sharing.

"Each tile is £30" *Me nearly spits up my tea* HOW MUCH?

Conversly you could install slaor panel trays this saves the cost of the roof tiles over the tray area,reduces the roofing dead laod, gives a more flush roof appearance and avoids much of the wing problems with solar arrays fixed to the roof surface..

In the southern US, solar on the south facing roofs on houses can supply all the electricity needed for that house. Of course it would help to orient all house roofs north to south and move all vent pipes on the north side of the roof. Also making the southern side of the roof a consistent surface with no widows peaks or such architecture garbage.

This is brilliant! It is obvious this will soon be the norm in the building industry everywhere, it is so simply and elegantly the right thing to do. This feels just like seeing the beginnings of the phone tech industry in the early 2000 and already seeing where it is going to lead. The future looks so fascinating and I cannot wait to see where these innovations are leading us.

Would it be a good idea to change the planning laws so that all new roofs would be lean-to type with South facing orientation? This would mean that close to 100% of every roof would be South facing

Solar tiles are a great idea but £30 a tile is a very tough pill to swallow, especially as the panel is less efficient and will be at point of replacement around 20 years before the tile itself, I am glad to see people buying it to further fund the R&D but this is not for us mere mortals just yet, Keep the development going and the prices dropping and one day

Did he say £30 and 900 tiles £27000 seems pretty high for a system that is reliant on silicon to make it watertight and adhere the panels to the tiles in extreme cold and heat. Biggest thing that I have with these is, it’s a lot of tiles to have in series so if you have one tile go down then that knocks out the other 44tiles 😮 think they should have some sort of optimisers. On a side note I wonder how efficient those panels are as it’s not just about having solar it is the make up of the cells and also the degradation of the cells over the life of the product.

The best idea I've seen yet UK government should change the planning law and make this sort of thing compulsory.

The answer for the dynamic loading caused by external solar panels is to modify the roof design to take that loading into account before building. My own roof , SIPS, came with 22 pages of calculations to show it was suitable for solar panels, solar thermal and keeping the rain out and the wind away.

We need this product here in Australia! So many tiled roofs in Sydney alone that this would suit perfectly!

He hit the nail on the head when he said It's A No Brainer. Great new word: Solarize.

Great idea, however hasn’t the hole and sealant just put a potential leak path in to every roof tile? It’s just a case of when the sealant will give up and leak then you may have many many leaks! As an engineer that seems a fatal flaw in the system. Solve that and your on to a winner.

They're no where near as efficient as panels at the moment though, I looked into these when I was looking at getting solar on my roof and standard panels were the better option. Might change in the future though

While I like the idea in principle, and it looks much better I do have a couple of issues. 1. (As mentioned by others) the hole in every tile and a small bead of adhesive to bond the cell to the tile is not going to last long or be 100% perfect for every tile. This means leaks. 2. Roof tiles life probably exceeds 50-60 years, solar panels probably 20 years or so before losing efficiency. And with this it's a new roof when the solar panels need replacing.

I’ve been waiting years for someone to do this!!! 💪🏻👍🏻

Marley did solar roof tiles at least 15 years ago if not before, they were installed on Southampton university and had a live web page to view the results in 2004. They stopped because of poor take up but now they are doing them again.

I have Solar Panels for 10 years now. 11.000 kWh Production a year since 2012. Heatpump 65 degrees Celsius, No Gas. No Energy Bill. Fast and Easy. Can be done around the world.

If the rows are connected in series what happens of you get a fault on one tile

Is this a re-upload? I'm sure I have seen this before.

imagine having a bad connection in one of them . maybe they do 1 run of the tiles and then some sort of monitoring module. i would hate to check 600 connections :-)

I have been enjoyed, so thank you for delivering.

I like this. There are so many good ideas how to go green its just great!

All house builders should have to use this kind of tech. Imagine if every house had these on.

I remember when this was originally posted, and as it was then, my only concern with this product is that it still involves concrete, a product that is widely acknowledged to contribute significantly to world CO2 emissions. This isn't to say that I think perfect should be the enemy of good, but I do wonder if a similar take on a roof tile/solar combo could've been designed with a less carbon intensive footprint. Just because a product is cheap to produce, that doesn't necessarily mean it is eco-friendly. The (how) of production is just as important as the (why) of any given product; it's why procurement processes/contracts are starting to integrate this into the tendering process or in modern parlance, ESG.

The maths just doesn't add up... Each tile is 15w at a cost of £30 each. Average 400w panel is around £200 these days. 400/15 = 27 tiles (rounded up) to output a similar amount 27 x £30 = £810 for the same amount of output. Not to mention the surface area of 27 of these tiles would be far greater than a single panel. It would be far cheaper and much more efficient to get a standard roof and then add the panels on top.

this looks familiar. wasn't this in your Fully Charged Channel earlier this year or last?. Great idea. For countries that use solid tiles like this.

The problem with this technology is an increase of %3000 from a roof tile, to a roof tile with a solar panel stuck on, why.

Here in the US we have such a strange dynamic of people. Those on the ideological right protest to be all about individualism, self sufficient and raising ones elf up by the bootstraps but when you mention to them that we should incentives as many homeowners, buildings and apartment buildings to incorporate solar and battery storage there's just so much resistance. It's the strangest thing to witness. They argue with you about electric cars, solar and wind and just think it's some nefarious trick by the federal government to adopt these things... But it's refreshing to regain my sanity to see people around the world take things seriously and are working on technology and solutions like this.

This is a good option for conservation areas where conventional solar panels would be hard to get through planning.

Would like to see more about how the modules are adhered to the tile and associated issues of weather proofing and therefore design life. Some tile cutter rig? Noise, dust and how long does it take? Don't get me wrong, it looks awesome and thanks for sharing it Fully Charged Show :) So glad new building regulations (June 2022) in the UK finally require new build domestic to have PV included and an EV charger, about time! Totally agree about big commercial buildings not having solar, it's bizarre, I guess lots are rented or leased? Short term thinking and lack of awareness, the payback on supermarket chillers and lights must be pretty quick even if only doing private wire and batteries (just self consumption) and not exporting to the grid.

Thank you.

Yes! Awesome idea!

I've got roof integrated PV panels. They are ordinary PV panels with a special mounting adapter made by a company called GSE. It's smarter looking than an "on-roof" system, and it dramatically reduces static load on the roof. It's been in operation for 2 years and has withstood Storm Arwen, Malik and Corrie without damage, and it's shed some of the worst torrential summer downpours I've seen without leakage. This looks good, but the labour costs are much higher for installation and because of the number of individual elements and connections, the warranty callouts are likely to be higher than they would be for ordinary panels. There's also a complete lack of choice in this form factor, so warranty issues in the years to come are likely to be met with obsolescence issues, whereas standard sized panels will probably have plenty of replacement options to choose from. Since the pandemic, I've been tracking the PV/Concrete tile price ratio. Prepandemic, it was £10/sq metre for concrete tiles, vs £50/sq metre for solar PV. So price ratio was about 5. Now it's £20/sq metre for concrete tiles, but £100/sq metre for solar PV. Price ratio is the same. So personally, I think trending solar PV tech will focus on reducing rooftop costs. That means lighter rooftops which also benefit from lower transport and manual handling costs. I also think simpler fixing systems for both panel and wiring will continue to reduce labour costs. This technology of fixing PV direct to an old fashioned concrete tile doesn't address these cost objectives.

Isn't this a re-issue of this video! I seem to remember watching it on Fully Charged over a year ago?

v interesting,is the life span the same as rigid ? how easy is to find a faulty tile and it looks like its going to be a bugger to replace ?

Excellent show

The way to go!!!

It's a shame they didn't take into account the shadow at 1:54 ..

Informative & clear 😊👍

great video

I love the idea of solar roof tiles but one thing slightly niggles, if they are connected as one array per elevation into an inverter (albeit at higher voltage due to parallel strings) does that not mean that any shadow on one tile will reduce the whole output of the elevation? With bigger panels you can get round this using micro inverters but that would not be practical here.

Good idea but when comparing the additional price of the solar he confuses people by comparing apples with pears ie one square metres and the other per tile. My impression is that the solar tiles are approx £300 per square metre compared to £10 for just tiles, just too expensive.

The issue here is I looked into solar panels, heat source pumps etc cost for my 2000 square feet house to install 32k yes 32k I will be pushing up the daisys before I ever get the cost back and I’m in my forties, and the person that worked out the cost stated I will be negative 1500 when it will need a complete re install

What is the work-life for these units> also if someone puts their boots on them while climbing on the roof cause problems with the tiles?

This needs grants to help get the cost down. And planning to get house builders to install solar tiles at reasonable cost compared to panels.

Old mate forgot to mention the time it takes to drill the hole and glue the panel on each tile.. but decent idea. gotta wonder how water tight that panel is on that tile.

Yeah, NAH. You have to be crazy to rely on some perpetuum mobile glue to keep the rain water outside my house! One worker's mistake will cost me a fortune on top of this already premium fortune. Forget aesthetics, I'm not looking at my roof all day. I'd take the big panels just to have the peace of mind. 🤷‍♂✌ 1:16 Do YOU trust this funnily applied layer of sealant? Cause I sure don't.

But doesn't the "plonk on modules as an afterthought" not add ventilation/cooling for the panels? Or does the tile provide enough of a heatsink for that purpose? I also wonder if the overlap causes a slight shadow to appear which could drag the output down of the tile.

The date shows 'today', but I remember seeing this before.

What's the efficiency loss due to the extra heading as you've lost the airflow. Also are these tiles rated for 40 years if your looking to swap these 1:1 for a normal roof.

This really should become a law that all new builds have to have this. The cost to major developers would be totally negligable due to the volumes they build in.

We will be self building and putting on a solar roof, but using bespoke nulock roofing tiles that are half the weight of normal tiles

Hmm. £300 per 150w? Far too expensive.

Thats great, I like it. How much it will cost a roof of a house around 100m2 surface floor

A no brainer if you've got more money than brains! I'll keep my panels thanks.

Is this really a good solution? Cutting a hole in the middle of the tile. How long will that stay watertight for? There must be a better solution out there. I saw something about solar shingles which looked interesting. Would be good to sop various options with pros and cons of each.

What about when there are issues, would be paying the roof up to diagnose and fix an issue...

Genius! I’d like to know why this wasn’t thought of 5 years ago, and if it was, what prohibited its implementation.

Not a good idea in Colorado, where golf ball sized hail storms happen every summer. Those hail storms cause a high percentage of home owners here to get new roofs almost annually. Our insurance rates will skyrocket if the insurance companies have to pay to replace all those solar panels annually also! The only way around that would be for the installers to put at least half inch thick plexiglass above the solar panels which would probably make them less efficient, especially when the dust from our dry climate clings to the plexiglass. By the way in my 40 years living here I have seen softball sized hail on 2 occasions.

Solar roof tiles, aestetically, are great! But like the Tesla solar roof, have the same issue- cost. PV Panels, even as they have dropped significantly in cost over the last 20 years, are still expensive. To pay 3x that cost just for the aestetics is beyond what most people can afford. At least with PV panels, you can make a case for a pay back from that investment, albeit a long one- but not really for solar tiles. When their costs is equal to that of the cost of a new roof + PV panels, only then will they make sense for the vast majority of home owners, and only then on either new homes, or homes where the whole roof has to be replaced.

Great idea, but I would expect 60 plus years out of a concrete tiled roof, so when the solar degrades in 25/30/35 years you still have a roof but no solar.

what do you do when the roof pitch, fall or weather conditions demands that you have a grater overlap?

If you are getting "traditional" solar for an normal house. please specify Pigeon Wire Net round the edge . Some installers are not bothering & their customers are still getting Flocked ! ( cooing, rain of pigeon dung,damage to roof, possible fire risk). Which ever type, Solar PV is worth it both for long term finance & climate change & reducing dependence on energy companies. Literally taking back power!

Building codes in appropriate sunny areas should make solar mandatory.

Didn't Dan cover this in a previous episode of Fully Charged? Love this solution though over standard solar panels, 13kW is a decent system.

If it was a new roof then the cost of tiles should be factored in as well….unless his 50% premium included the cost of roof tiles as well. Brilliant product !

This is a very good concept, but how long would the composite materials that seal the photocells from the UV from the sun, water ingress and general weathering last? Hopefully more than at least 30 years to make it viable to install. Only time can tell, really!

so many connectors and bits, surely its just better to have massive roof tiles that are simply normal sized solar panels isntead of loads of little ones?

It should be government legislation that all newly built houses incorporate a solar power roof

What's the difference between their solar roof system and Telsa solar roof system?

The big potential problem here, that was not addressed in Robert's interview, is, how is the problem of over-shading addressed? Lot's of properties have roofs which suffer over-shading from other properties, and especially from trees. For conventional solar panels, this reduces efficiency across the entire array, even in respect of those specific panels which are not over-shaded. The whole array only performs as well as the most over-shaded panel. The solution is to use panels which each have their own mini-inverter. SolarEdge is an example. With these panels, each panel performs to its best efficiency, regardless of over-shading. How do these solar tiles address this issue?

The idea of everyone using these tiles is a great idea however you can't just go on Ebay and buy them, I suspect you can only get them if you are a construction company, so though this is a good idea most people won't be able to get their hand son them. Like so many things DIY will have to wait until the tech trickles down to them. But that's probably why you don't see these things being used everywhere, you just can't get them.

Great episode! One question though: I’m constantly told pv US much more efficient if cooled by airflow. Is this a different system? Thanks.

I love everything about this, but I dont get why people dislike the regular solar panel asthetic. Like, whats wrong with it? Looks dope.

Fill the roofs before using up farmland for solar.

what a great idea

isnt that some old episode ?

This is a move in the right direction, but what is really needed is for the government to put PV panels on every roof in the country, and a 8kwh battery in every home. Feed the generated electricity into the grid and give every household 10kwh of power a day, irrespective of whether they have a roof or not, for free. Anyone who already had panels should be allowed to keep them, but any feed in tariff they had been paid would be paid back as tax over a period of ten years. This tax would be waived for Green party voters, anyone suspected of having voted Conservative would pay double, Conservative party members who had inflicted either Johnson or Truss on us triple, whilst supported of UKIP or Reform would pay ten times, that is after having completed their one year prison sentence. BNP and EDL supporters would be transported to Rwanda, on the same plane as Suella Braverman.

The math is interesting. The variable is the future price of electricity. I feel safe assuming that the price will increase. Then there is charging your car at home. The electricity price at home is much less than at a public charger. Added bonus is having electricity security. It does not take much to knock out the power grid. I cringe when I see new houses without solar roofs.

*sigh* I own a semi detached with East, West, North facing roof sides. Significant tree cover too. It would just never be worth it.

The drilled hole right in the middle of the roof tile concerns me a little. Over time, moisture can make it's way under the solar panel through the hole and under the roof. Same if the solar panel breaks. This area get's weakened alot. It would be more safe to put the electric connectors on the top area of the tile where they overlap.

Concept is fine, price is crazy. In roof solar panels are a more cost effective option.

I am worried about all the individual connections

Solar tiles is the next big step, I always thought it was a great idea since I saw the tesla tiles. If I had the money I'd love to get solar tiles and a battery, having kids and being home a lot power is used a lot and my pc probably draws half a power station lol. I get sun front and back so my roof would be great for these tiles. Now to win the lottory :(

I must say, I'm not keen on any roof solar since periodically they will need cleaning for maximum efficiency - with a cost attached. Put mine at ground level although I accept that isn't practical for everyone.

That's a lot of collective resistance from all those plugs. Maintenance on faulty panels would be a nightmare. No thanks.

Connector on each and every tile seems like a bad design, a lot more modes to failure. If it's like Christmas tree lights 1 bad connector could take out the majority of the array

Just to update the facts and figures given in the episode which was filmed over 2 years ago, we can now offer the following. Despite 2 years of price rises for components, the tiles are now £29 each, however cell efficiency has increased to 21.3%, meaning that each tile now generated 17.5 watts. This is in effect a reduction in cost of 17.5% for the same amount of output. As volumes continue to increase, further savings will be passed on.

This is great if you're building a new home, however, I don't expect to re-roof my house in my lifetime.

They are part shaded

They are asking the right questions. Not..."What is the best/highest quality roofing tile?" But..."What is the most common roofing tile?" Making something that is practical and affordable is much more important than making the best possible.

in Australia there are 20million buildings all connected to the national grid. (almost, there is a gap 1,000 miles ) 33kwh from every roof is more than the national total max daily fossil fuelled electric power generation if the generators are lucky and no failures.

Anyone know who makes theses tiles please?

Energy companies should offering people new roofs as long as they get the electricity.

4kw systems are small. 16 x 250W, Now 16 x 410W = 6.6kw, over 33m2

Absolutely ridiculous mark-up. Too greedy. Shameful.

I bought my brand new house in 2020, we bought the house off-plan and the builder had no option for solar to be installed while they built the house. I could not believe it, I wanted to have solar installed and I was told I could not because they do not provide it as an option. They grudgingly put in a car charger which I believe is actually not up to the task and will need to be removed and replaced with the correct wiring! The housing industry is broken.