A new solar electric roof tile has been launched by solar PV company Solar Century and the product is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK. The design is uniquely tailored to dwellings with small format roof tiles and can be easily integrated into the roof thus enabling more homes to 'go solar'.

The new C21e solar electric plain tile is one of several such products which first emerged on to the market in 2005 with the appearance of the company's C21e solar electric roof tile. This was followed by the C21e slate in 2008 and since then tiles from the C21e range have been installed on thousands of roofs all over the UK with extra demand from European countries such as Italy and France. The new tile is compatible with single and double camber tiles and can be fitted alongside a wide variety of plain tiles. It can be attached directly to the roof batten and is suitable for both new build and retrofit installations and each tile is 47w thereby generating 2,150 kWh per year when installed as part of a 54-tile 2.5 kWp system. The average system replaces 200 tiles and covers less than 20 square metres of roof space. Larger systems of more than 4 kWp can also be designed for larger roofs. SolarCentury will be presenting the tile at the EcoBuild green building show at London's ExCel exhibition centre in the Docklands.

Martin White, Solar Century Product Manager, said: "Our aim is to make solar simple to specify, install and own; with our new C21e plain tile, we can help even more people go solar every day." Another Solar Century representative said that the new product will be the same price as the existing C21e solar roof tile with costs ranging from £6,567 for a 1.4 kWp system to £14,881 for a 4 kWp system.

New Solar Roof Mounting System For Solar Tiles

Following Solar Century's latest solar roof tile, a new compatible roof mounting system has been launched by Stainless Threaded Fasteners (STF), a leading distributor of stainless steel and brass fasteners. The new mounting system, called the REDtiP Solar Mounting System, will be presented at the Ecobuild Green Building Show later this week and uses new hooks designed to fit the dimensions of UK interlocking roof tiles, thus reducing the need for costly on-roof adaptations. It also means easier installation and also saves time and money.