| Development of a Photovoltaic Module for Roof Tile |
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| Yasuhiro SATOH, Masafumi SAITOH and Naoki MORI |
| Photovoltaic electricity generation is an alternative energy source that is being used widely in the roofs of residential and commercial buildings. However, in spite of the fact that temple roofs usually are positioned to offer excellent conditions for photovoltaic electricity generation, no such examples are available, mainly due to the fact that the architectural beauty of the tiled roof is marred by the existence of the photovoltaic module. This report describes the development of a photovoltaic module for temple roofs capable of suppressing the decline in power generation efficiency without affecting the architectural appearance of the roof. The authors first made the trial samples photovoltaic modules suited for temple roofs and evaluated their performance. Based on the results of the performance tests, a full-scale model of the temple roof with a photovoltaic module was made, and its power generation performance as well as its architectural appearance was confirmed. |
| keywords: |
photovoltaic cell, photovoltaic electricity generation, temple, roof tile, architectural appearance |