Towards Sustainable Cities with Integrated Photovoltaic Ceramic Roof Tile

Most of the existing PV roof tile solutions are either not based on clay substrates or consist of the adhesion of a PV module onto a ceramic tile. In this work we wanted to prove the possibility to integrate the PV module into the ceramic tile in a one-step lamination process. The first step was to assess the adhesion of the encapsulant to the clay substrate by peeling tests. Then, the encapsulant that demonstrated the best performance was selected to produce a range of samples in various configurations. These samples have first been subjected to the hail impact test and only the samples that passed this test were then tested in climatic chambers to assess their reliability. As a result, a one-step solution for flat roof tile using crystalline silicon solar cells was found, able to withstand humidity freeze based on the IEC 61215 standard for PV and its equivalent from the UNE-EN 539-2 standard for tile. Other tests, specific for photovoltaic devises, such as hail impact and damp heat were also successfully passed.