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Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

theartnewspaper.com

1–10 of 143 posts

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#4
post #2

The company that makes them: https://www.dyaqua.it/invisiblesolar/_en/

> Inside the module there are incorporated standard monocrystalline silicon cells. The surface, that is opaque at the sight but translucent to sun rays, allows the light to enter and feed the cells.

When they talk about "sun rays", do they mean the UV portion of sunlight? Because if the material were transparent to visible light, it would be, well, transparent, wouldn't it?

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#6
They can be designed to appear like stone, wood, concrete or brick, so can be hidden on walls and floors, as well as on roofs,

Somebody wanna run the numbers and tell me how many decades it will take for one of these things to offset its manufacturing & installation carbon footprint? I'm betting it's a while.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#7
post #6

They can be designed to appear like stone, wood, concrete or brick, so can be hidden on walls and floors, as well as on roofs, Somebody wanna run the numbers and tell me how many decades it will take for one of these things to offset its manufacturing & installation carbon footprint? I'm betting it's a while.

[deleted]

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#8

They look cool and all, but how much does this cut down on efficiency?

I guess that doesn't matter much as long as it pushes customers who would have never otherwise used such things to do so at all.

in other words, for historical sites or places where aesthetic matters a lot, the conversation is "should we use these less efficient panels that fulfill our aesthetic requirements, or should we forego the use of solar all together?"

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#9
post #8

They look cool and all, but how much does this cut down on efficiency?

I guess that doesn't matter much as long as it pushes customers who would have never otherwise used such things to do so at all. in other words, for historical sites or places where aesthetic matters a lot , the conversation is "should we use these less efficient panels that fulfill our aesthetic requirements, or should we forego the use of solar all together?"

If EROI on those panels is negative then it's better to forgo them.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#10
post #4
post #2

The company that makes them: https://www.dyaqua.it/invisiblesolar/_en/

> Inside the module there are incorporated standard monocrystalline silicon cells. The surface, that is opaque at the sight but translucent to sun rays, allows the light to enter and feed the cells. When they talk about "sun rays", do they mean the UV portion of sunlight? Because if the material were transparent to visible light, it would be, well, transparent, wouldn't it?

>When they talk about "sun rays", do they mean the UV portion of sunlight?

I don't think so, because they say they use a standard monocrystalline siicon PV cell -- which are (generally) crappy for UV scavenging.

I would guess the material atop the solar cell is either slightly porous or made of a material that is mostly transparent to the right spectra of light, resulting in acceptable losses.

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