Renewable

April 25 (Renewables Now) - Swedish solar technology company Midsummer AB has joined hands with Clix Steel Profile AB to offer a complete solution for BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) metal roof systems all over Europe.

Clix has developed a metal roof system of steel sheets, certified for slopes as low as 5 degrees. The solar PV panels are mounted on the roof plates using a high performance elastomeric butyl adhesive tape. The connectors and junction boxes are hidden and protected for snow and ice.

Midsummer CEO Sven Lindstroem told Renewables Now that sales of 50,000 sq m for the first year “is a resonable target”.

“The roof plates are produced with integrated lightweight flexible panels using any type of coated steel. The lightweight, flexible panel from Midsummer is integrated already at the factory, thereby reducing installation time and cost,” Lindstroem explains.

Midsummer develops manufacturing equipment for flexible thin film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium and selenium) solar cells on individual stainless steel substrates. Its R&D efforts are focused on boosting the efficiency of the cells and on the integration of solar modules into roofing elements.

Interest into solar roofs has been revived by Tesla/SolarCity’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) announcement last year of a new product - shingles made from quartz glass and solar cells. At the time Sven Lindstroem said this is “great news and exactly what the industry needs”. He told Renewables Now that solar roofs could become the preferred choice for new houses in sunny countries by 2020 as more solutions like the one developed by Midsummer and Clix become available to architects and home builders.