Techengy Group Group Materials Smart Home Solar
Building-integrated photovoltaics

A roof that pays for itself.

Techengy designs, supplies and installs this roof-integrated solar system for projects in Ghana. These are not panels bolted onto a roof: the arched glass tiles are the roof, laid in a conventional course with an 85 mm lap and up to 32 W of generation per tile.

A house roofed entirely in dark solar tiles
Why it matters

One roof, one trade, one contract.

You are buying a roof anyway

A conventional installation costs you a roof and then a set of panels on top of it. Here the roofing and the generation are one purchase, so what solar actually costs you is only the difference between the two roofs.

Nothing penetrates the roof

No rails, no brackets, no bolts driven through your waterproofing. Each tile laps the one below it — the way a clay roof has always worked.

It survives the weather here

Class F wind rating to 177 km/h and IP67 sealing. Rear ventilation pulls heat off the back of each cell, which matters more in Accra than in the climates these were first tested in.

Colour

The colour is in the tile.

Pigment sits over the cell, so a coloured tile gives up some output for the sake of the elevation. That trade is worth stating plainly rather than hiding inside an average.

25 – 32 W

Grey

Highest output. The default where generation is the priority.

18 – 25 W

Red

For streetscapes where the roof has to read as terracotta.

18 – 25 W

Green

Specified where a roof is overlooked and must sit into landscape.

An installer standing on a completed solar tile roof

The finished roof is walkable — installers work directly on it.

Durability

Tested the way a roof gets treated.

Walked on, repeatedly

Multiple trampling tests. Installers work directly on the finished roof.

Driven over

A car was run over a tile without damaging it.

Hail and ball drop

Impact tested against hail and a dropped steel ball.

Lightning protection

Protection is part of the system rather than an addition to it.

Waterproof to IP67

85 mm overlap and sealed edges. The tile is the weatherproofing layer.

Heat and snow shedding

A ventilated cavity behind each tile drives an air current that cools the cell.

Specification

Manufacturer data.

Every figure below is the manufacturer's published data for this tile. We reproduce it as supplied and do not restate it as our own guarantee. Warranty and certification are matters between you and the manufacturer; what we take responsibility for is the supply and the installation.

Peak power (STC)
32 / 30 / 28 / 25 W grey · 25 / 23 / 21 / 18 W red and green
Tile size
721 × 500 × 33 mm
Weight
6.5 kg ± 0.5 kg per tile
Frame
Aluminium alloy
Junction box
IP67, MC4 connectors
Colours
Grey, red, green
Glass transmittance
Greater than 91.5%
Fire rating
Class A
Wind rating
Class F — tested to 177 km/h, withstood 15 typhoons
Overlap
85 mm tile to tile, with 25 mm and 34 mm edge safety zones
Design life
25 years (manufacturer figure)
Certification
UL certified (USA), per the manufacturer. 131 patents held on the system.
Close view of arched glass solar tiles lapped in courses
Installation

Laid left to right, bottom to top.

Tiles overlap 85 mm and adjust left and right as they are laid, which absorbs the small errors every roof carries. Without that movement the errors accumulate, the arches stop aligning, and the roof stops being waterproof.

A damaged tile is replaced in two movements — push it up, lift it out. Nothing around it is disturbed. Matching ridge, edge, ditch and three-way ridge tiles are part of the system, so the whole roof is one product rather than solar in the middle and something else at the perimeter.

Solar tiles being installed course by course on a pitched roof
Where it suits

Roofs where appearance is not negotiable.

  • New builds, where the roof budget is unspent and can be redirected
  • Re-roofing — replace the covering and gain generation in one trade
  • Estates and schemes whose appearance rules exclude panels
  • Hospitality and heritage buildings where racking would be unacceptable
  • Factory and warehouse roofs at scale — the same tile, more of it
A large industrial roof covered in solar tiles
Quotation

Tell us about your roof.

Send the roof area and pitch, or just the address, and we will size the array and quote it. Site inspection is free.

Enquiring about something else? See all solutions.