Continuing the coverage of new products at Intersolar in San Francisco this week, our team has made some interesting observations.
Lumeta a company that focuses on BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) showed off two interesting products, one which we covered yesterday was solar panels that mount flat onto roofs with adhesives; we got some close-up shots of these easy to install solar panels. The flat thin solar panels are made for large flat commercial building rooftops.
Lumeta has not forgotten the residential folks; aesthetics is often a concern for residential solar panel shoppers which can be mitigated with solar panels that are integrated into roofing shingles. Lumeta showcased a unique solar shingle product line at the expo which caught our eye.
Power Outages / Blackouts are something every solar power shopper wants to avoid when buying a grid-tied solar power system, although in reality grid tied systems go down when there is a power outage. Inverters automatically shut down when there is a blackout because there is no where to send the power generated. Adding battery backup to your grid-tied system is an expensive option because of the upfront cost and ongoing maintenance of the batteries. This typically discourages grid tied solar power shoppers to add a backup battery system.
TerraWatt Power is working on a new inverter, that does not need batteries to keep your home up and running during a blackout during the day. Instead of the inverter, “going to sleep” or shutting down during a blackout, TerraWatt Power’s grid-tie inverter stops feeding the grid and directly powers your home! So you would survive a blackout during the day and no need for batteries! TerraWatt Power’s grid-tie inverter is a great example of how solar / clean energy equipment is evolving.
