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Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

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Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#91

Post by midoridensha »

cmarschner wrote: post #87
midoridensha wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but maybe power plants of the future will look like the pyramids and energy receivers like obelisks. Unless people in the future become religious nuts even worse than today's, I don't see why they'd waste so much space and resources on power-generating burial mounds. The pyramids may be impressive for a primitive civilization to build, but they were functionally completely useless and just a collosal waste of manpow…

People built 1000s of churches and cathedrals which, at face value, was a collossal waste of manpower, materials, and space. And yet we admire them and keep them around for 100s or 1000s of years, because of their greatness. The same for the pyramids. Of course, the effort served a function as well: to establish and maintain a power structure, to give people whose lives hung on strings far more often than ours do a s…

I'm not advocating bulldozing ancient churches or the pyramids, but to build those things (or modern equivalents in terms of resources as a percentage of resources available to the society at large) today would be supremely stupid and wasteful. Arguably, wasting resources on burial mounds might be part of why Ancient Egyptian civilization collapsed, just like the civilization of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) with their statues.

We still build great things, but today they're functional: skyscrapers, for instance. They're not really the most efficient type of building, but they are functional. And modern buildings are not devoid of ornamentation or signs of beauty, we just don't find gargoyles to be fashionable any more.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#92

Post by japaneseminisub »

mattlondon wrote: post #86

This would be great if they can do more styles and not just terracotta. E.g. I own an "old" UK home that has a "normal" tiled roof, but as it is in a conservation area so any attempt at solar will be met with literal outrage. These would be great even if they are only 10% efficient - something is better than nothing and I have this big old roof sitting there and the whole thing could be one huge solar panel. Where ca…

FTA they can be made to look like stone, wood, concrete or brick.

Seems like a great idea especially in the places where you need to match the style of buildings or cant change outward appearance.

Thatching might be difficult though...

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#93

Post by stdbrouw »

bruce511 wrote: post #72
galangalalgol wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean that in high intensity regions you'd need active cooling or is that not a problem?

So for those not in the know, fun fact, solar panels work better when they don't get hot. So things like airflow for passive cooling do matter. I'm aware of several large-scale solar situated in hot regions with no active cooling, so I guess my answer to your question is no, high effeciency panels in hot environments do not need active cooling. Roof tiles are a different question. There's no airflow underneath them.…

FWIW, the way roofs are designed these days (at least over here in Belgium) there is supposed to be a little bit of airflow underneath your roof, which is achieved by letting the ridge and hip tiles hover over the roof (instead of cementing them like they used to do) and putting a perforated grate at the bottom just above the gutters instead of boarding it up.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#94

Post by duckmysick »

mcronce wrote: post #62
galangalalgol wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean that in high intensity regions you'd need active cooling or is that not a problem?

This doesn't answer your question, but I really wish someone would offer off-the-shelf panels with tubing on the back to hook up water lines. It would be dope to cool my panels and preheat my hot water at the same time.

There's one combining a heat exchanger and photovoltaics: https://triplesolar.eu/en/introduction/

> The front side of the PVT heat pump panel is similar to a solar panel and has solar cells to generate electricity. The backside is a heat exchanger that supplies the energy source for the heat pump. The heat exchanger-collector collects energy form the ambient temperature and additionally from daylight and sunlight.

Not sure how it does throughout the whole season.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#95

Post by rapsey »

sundvor wrote: post #79

This tech would be amazing for anyone slapped with a random heritage listing do not modify ban on installing PV, as has happened here in Melbourne, VIC. E.g. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2022/06/08/melbourne-h...

It is no surprise this tech is from Italy. At least in Europe this is the main reason you do not find solar panels in cities.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#96

Post by grey-area »

drusenko wrote: post #50
xoa wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the Tesla Solar Roof tiles, and they did get some tiny number (thousands or something like that?) installed. I actually had ordered one and was in line to get it installed last year. But the company cancelled it, and then Tesla started cancelling all of them apparently. The reason the installer gave was that the v1/v2 were too labor intensive to be worth it, and they were waiting for the v3, but from reports I r…

Did you ever end up finding any other company making any tiles that resembled slate, out of curiosity?

Yes multiple companies do this now.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#97

Post by iforgotpassword »

bruce511 wrote: post #72
galangalalgol wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean that in high intensity regions you'd need active cooling or is that not a problem?

So for those not in the know, fun fact, solar panels work better when they don't get hot. So things like airflow for passive cooling do matter. I'm aware of several large-scale solar situated in hot regions with no active cooling, so I guess my answer to your question is no, high effeciency panels in hot environments do not need active cooling. Roof tiles are a different question. There's no airflow underneath them.…

According to some testing, it matters:

https://youtu.be/Mt9qLRN7JvA

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#98

Post by marcyb5st »

kristopolous wrote: post #35
burkaman wrote: post #23

Here's the product datasheet: https://www.dyaqua.it/invisiblesolar/_en/documents/rooftile-... An independent research center lists the efficiency as 0.111: https://integratedpv.eurac.edu/en/products/modules/invisible... Anybody know how that compares to an average panel on the market today? From a quick search it seems like the best you can actually buy is 0.22 efficiency. Edit: The best available on this site is 0.2…

That's fine, they look great. Realizing we've got stuff looking like that that generates freakin' electricity is amazing.

Yeah, but they are also crazy expensive. From their website is 7k Euros for 1kW of installed capacity (not sure if the price includes then installation). I understand beauty factor, but damn. For Pompei it's perfect though

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#99

Post by XitN »

cmarschner wrote: post #87
midoridensha wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but maybe power plants of the future will look like the pyramids and energy receivers like obelisks. Unless people in the future become religious nuts even worse than today's, I don't see why they'd waste so much space and resources on power-generating burial mounds. The pyramids may be impressive for a primitive civilization to build, but they were functionally completely useless and just a collosal waste of manpow…

People built 1000s of churches and cathedrals which, at face value, was a collossal waste of manpower, materials, and space. And yet we admire them and keep them around for 100s or 1000s of years, because of their greatness. The same for the pyramids. Of course, the effort served a function as well: to establish and maintain a power structure, to give people whose lives hung on strings far more often than ours do a s…

”and the hyper Functionalism has taken over cities. We have removed even ornament and other sign of beauty” if I recall correctly, the late author Paul Fussell called this ’the prolitarization of society’ or something similar. He pointed at that architecture used to symbolize something greater than the individual, not so much anymore

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#100

Post by graphe »

positr0n wrote: post #69
kristopolous wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine, they look great. Realizing we've got stuff looking like that that generates freakin' electricity is amazing.

Given the poorer efficiency, wouldn't it be better use of limited money and resources to put regular tiles on houses and normal solar panels somewhere else? (Honest question. I've always wondered why residential rooftop solar, especially since it's usually government subsidized, makes sense anywhere in the world.)

It's an active volcano, you need to run power lines, the ground shifts, and it can blow any time.

It makes sense to make your own power for yourself and you can sell it back to the grid.

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