Mar 1 2011
Solarcentury, the UK’s most experienced solar electricity company, has developed a universal solar electric slate, enabling many of the four million UK homes with slate roofs to go solar.
Solarcentury’s C21e slate, being launched to the public at ‘Ecobuild’, will help to meet demand for solar photovoltaics, where the “Feed-in tariff” rewards solar generators for electricity production. The precision engineered product has been 18 months in development, and its novel universal design is considered to be at the forefront of solar photovoltaic innovation.
Building upon the success of Solarcentury’s existing, award winning C21e Tile system, the new universal C21e solar electric slate widens the opportunity for homes to go solar, simplifies specification for both retrofit and new build installations and speeds up the installation time. The simplicity of C21e has attracted major house builders across the UK, where it is accepted as a mainstream construction product, generating clean electricity for homes with minimal visual impact.
The company has helped thousands of homes and businesses go solar with its range of solar products. Solarcentury, based in London, has a history of innovation in building integrated solar products that provide an alternative to traditional building materials.
Derry Newman, CEO Solarcentury said: "Our new solar electric slate is a first. To make it fit with any type of slate our design team had to use manufacturing techniques commonly used in the automotive and high tech consumer electronics industries. After detailed and thorough testing the result is a product with advanced weather protection features which is more than robust enough to meet the stringent building product standards across Europe. It is a testament to Solarcentury's depth of experience in solar roofing and our ability to innovate."
Over four million homes in the UK have slate roofs, until now the options for going solar were limited to bolt-on or systems with limited compatibility. With the new C21e slate, any slate roof can now benefit from going solar, without compromising the country’s roofscape.
With the Government’s target of millions of solar homes by 2020, it is essential that there is a range of solar products which are simple to specify and capable of blending in naturally to traditional roofs. The average household can now create an annual income of £800-900 plus £200 electricity savings with a solar electric roof, demand has more than doubled in 2010 with the introduction of the Feed-in tariff.
Source: http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/