Workshop Today Aims to Educate Building Industry
A dozen new single-family homes in a Compton subdivision will soon be among the first in the nation to be powered by high-tech solar roof tiles generating pollution-free power.
The attractive solar tiles form an integral part of the roofs and will provide up to 70% of the power for the homes in Central Park Estates, an affordable housing development being built by a non-profit community organization.
"Southern California has an abundance of sunshine," said William A. Burke, Chairman of the Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, a major sponsor of the project. "Building homes with solar roof tiles will harness the sun’s energy and help reduce polluting emissions."
AQMD and the Building Industry Association of Southern California are sponsoring a photovoltaic solar roof workshop in Compton today to educate builders and encourage them to use solar roof tiles in new homes and housing developments.
"We hope the example set by this development will give a major boost to President Clinton’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative, which aims to cover 1 million U.S. roofs with solar systems by 2010," said AQMD Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein.
The homes will offer owners substantial savings in utility bills. The solar systems also provide a means to mitigate the American home’s growing energy appetite and demand on power plants. In spite of increasingly efficient home building materials and appliances, a trend toward larger homes and a greater number of energy-gobbling appliances is poised to reverse energy conservation gains of the ‘70s and ‘80s, energy officials say.
Solar Systems Wired to Power Grid
Unlike traditional solar systems that function independently of a region’s electrical network, the solar tile roofs in Compton will not have battery storage and will be wired into Southern California Edison’s power grid. During the day, the solar tiles typically will make more electricity than is needed by the home and the excess will be fed into the grid.
"The homeowner’s electrical meter will literally spin backwards during the day, generating a credit on their utility bill," Wallerstein said.
At night, the photovoltaic tiles will not generate electricity and the regional power grid will provide power to the home.
Photovoltaic cells, first invented in the mid-1950s, have been used to power everything from spacecraft to freeway call boxes to buildings in remote areas. Photovoltaics have no moving parts and convert sunlight directly into electricity by the interaction of photons and electrons within a semiconductor material such as silicon.
Until recently, solar photovoltaic panels had to be retrofitted to homes and required an electrician to install them. Today, durable solar tiles can be installed by a roofer as part of the roof. The tiles have no moving parts, can be walked on and are expected to last for at least 15 years.
Each of the Compton homes will have more than 200 square feet of solar roof tiles generating about 2,000 watts on a sunny day, or enough for 60% to 70% of a typical home’s needs. The roof tiles on each home will cost approximately $20,000.
Solar tiles will be provided by Atlantis Energy Inc., based in Sacramento. United Solar Systems Corp. in Troy, Mich., and PowerLight Corp. in Berkeley also manufacture photovoltaic solar tiles. Manufacturers predict that the price of solar tiles could drop steadily and be cost-competitive in five years if demand and production increase.
The Compton project is funded by $100,000 from AQMD, $200,000 from the state’s Petroleum Violation Escrow Account and approximately $50,000 from the state’s Emerging Renewables Buy Down Program created by AB1890, California’s electric utility deregulation measure.
Nehemiah West Housing Corp., a non-profit consortium of churches and residents, is the developer of the 50-home project. The detached homes are available in three models ranging from 1,100 to 1,629 square feet.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for the urban portions of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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