With Australia increasingly ramping up renewable power -- and cutting the carbon emissions across the board, as evidenced by its current passage of a significant carbon tax on large polluters -- it appears probably to follow suit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/solar-shingles-green-roofing_n_1294849.html
Researchers at the university have developed a prototype of a photovoltaic/thermal system that has demonstrated the potential to make warm (25 degrees Celsius, or 77 Fahrenheit) all through winter. marketplace soon.
As for solar shingle technologies in this country, they have currently hit the industrial market, but in a curiously modest way, as Dow Solar has created its Powerhouse solar shingle systems commercially available exclusively to home owners in the state of Colorado. Horton may well nicely give it an edge in this burgeoning market place for such tech. This Hub brings with each other researchers from Penn State, the private sector and two national laboratories with the aim of creating and testing technologies with the power to cut the carbon footprint of the built environment.
Those shingles on your roof have absolutely nothing far better to do than soak up the sun all day lengthy -- why not put them to work in powering your residence as solar energy producers? It's a commonsense idea, and one particular that Dow Solar (a division of Dow Chemical) has been functioning on for a when. But new study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia may well go a single much better, by assisting to develop solar shingles that also assist to heat your home.
The shingles are one of a number of 'carbon-positive' goods, as they are referred to as, made to assist to prepare Australia for a zero carbon creating code, which is becoming introduced in the UK and Europe in 2016.
From EarthTechling's Susan DeFreitas:
These merchandise, aimed at cutting the carbon footprint of the typical Australian property, will be tested beginning later this year in UNSW's "living laboratories," the newest of which is positioned in the lately constructed Tyree Power Technologies Constructing, constructed by Brookfield Multiplex, 1 of the CRC's market partners, at the university's Kensington campus. The technology employed by the method was developed by UNSW's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering, and will be integrated into roofing panels, which will then be tested and additional developed via the school's Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Low-Carbon Living this year.
Dow is surely not the initial business to throw its hat in the solar shingle ring, but its brand recognition and partnerships with mega-builders like D.R. The firm is at present working on establishing a network of authorized dealers for Powerhouse shingles in Colorado, and will also launch the product in yet another, undisclosed U.S. In the course of testing, the building's residents and employees will test the effectiveness of these solar roofing components, with feedback incorporated into the style approach in preparation for the industrial industry.
In the U.S., related efforts are below way to develop merchandise for the green developing market through the Energy Innovation Hub in Philadelphia, which was established back in 2010 as a center for research innovations in the field of green developing. They're becoming sold as component of a 3-aspect solar roofing program, which consists of an array of shingles, an inverter and an energy monitoring technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFu6rml4ZHY
