Sharp Electronics, Multi-Crystal SPV Integrated Roof Tiles
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 06. 7.05
TreeHuggers meet the BISPVs (building integrated solar photovoltaics). "Beautifully complementing roof tiles of many shapes and sizes, Sharp’s ND-60RU1 solar modules offer a clean integrated look that’s especially pleasing to homeowners". These solar roof shingles integrate into the roof in the same manner as common,flat concrete tiles, and can be easily replaced individually. They screw to the existing roof battens, so no additional framing materials or extra roof penetrations needed.
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These look like rebranded versions of the Kyocera tiles. If there's more than one company really doing these, I'm impressed - they need competition.
There's an Australian company that also makes this sort of thing:
www.pvsolar.com.au
big gav, i think the big point on these was that they replace existing roofing tiles without any additional framing. these replace the existing roofing cement tiles one for one and screw in to your existing battens, unlike the pv solar products, which replace that entire section of roofing. these do seem pretty similar to the kyocera product, however.
more convenient for a lot of people if they are not building a new house, just adding solar to an existing home.
An engineer from Sharp e-mailed me to let me know that these are *not* Kyocera tiles, they're Sharp's tiles. That's good to know - I know someone who's soon to re-roof, perhaps they'll be interested.
Where would you buy these? I am due for a roof soon. what is the cost, and does anyone have them on their roof yet?
This is another company that has an intergrated system. Best I have seen yet.
http://www.nulok.com.au/about-solar-inserts.html
The best system for traditional barrel roof tile can be found on www.artezanos.com . You can see a demo installation clicking this link:
http://www.artezanos.com/green_universal_hybrid_roof_tile_system.html
The system is universal and can be used with anyones manufactured barrel roof tile regardless of dimension or material.