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The solar manufacturer Megasol has created a new solar tile made of glass, thereby overtaking Tesla. The brick is more durable and resistant than normal solar panels.
The Swiss solar manufacturer Megasol developed the bricks.
Megasol
The brick is already used on dozens of buildings in this country.
Megasol
Tesla has long been promising a new solar tile.
Now a Swiss company has overtaken the US electric car maker.
The Megasol company developed the first solar tile made of glass.
Solar energy is an important part of Switzerland’s climate strategy. Solar cells are already decorating many roofs in this country. Now the Solothurn-based solar manufacturer Megasol has developed the first solar tile made entirely of glass. The company is represented in 18 countries and employs over 250 people worldwide.
This overtakes the Swiss company Tesla. Because the US electric car maker has announced its own solar tile for some time. Nothing has happened yet. “Our glass solar tile, on the other hand, is already a reality,” says media spokesman Mike Reist to 20 minutes.
The brick is already used on dozens of buildings in this country. “Glass solar tiles are significantly more resistant and durable than others,” explains Reist. This is a so-called in-roof system: The solar tiles are not glued to the roof tiles, but replace them.
“With the solar tile you not only get a solar system – but also a new roof,” says Reist. If you want a glass-solar-tile roof, you have to add up the costs for a new roof plus the costs for a solar system. The glass solar roof costs around 95 francs per square meter more than a normal tiled roof.
The solar tile is already giving the manufacturing company growth figures in the double-digit percentage range. The new glass solar tile owes its success to its appearance. Aesthetics and attractive architecture are particularly important in Switzerland: “More solar systems will be built if they are nicely and cleanly integrated.”
In-roof systems are particularly environmentally friendly
Matthias Stucki, head of the Life Cycle Assessment Research Group at the ZHAW, explains that the solar tiles look like normal tiles.
“If a solar system replaces an entire roof, it is also particularly environmentally friendly,” says Stucki. In this way, conventional bricks can be saved and renewable electricity can be produced at the same time. Most of all, installing the solar roof is worth it when old tiles need to be replaced.
Megasol also produces new types of solar cells for facades. For example for the new building of the Office for Environment and Energy in Basel. It is noticeable that the facade has a golden sheen and the solar panels appear three-dimensional. Because a material was used for the solar cells that has never been used in this way: 3D fused glass. Depending on the incidence of light, the glass enables different optics.
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