Solar roof retrofit — Aesthetic solution to solar energy?

What does it look like to have a solar-powered house by lakeside? Hoymiles partner Ralos from Finland retrofitted the roof of a lakeside summer cabin and converted it into a micro power station with solar tiles that perfectly fit into the original design and natural landscape.

Solar roof tiles, integrating renewable technology into aesthetic beauty

When it comes to solar panels, you may think of square-shaped panels lined up in arrays. These conventional solar panels are mounted on racks and are normally placed on open ground or rooftops. While this type of installment is common for modern buildings, it can be quite difficult to deploy them on tiled roof in that tiles are fragile and fixing mounting racks on them can potentially damage the seal of the roof.

This is where solar tiles (sometimes often called solar shingles) come into play. To put it in simple words, they are themselves roof tiles and solar panels at the same time. With these tiles, you can have solar installation seamlessly built “into” your room rather than bolting it “on” your roof because all the wiring and connections are done underneath the roof tiles. That is why our partner Ralos eco oy, a Finnish solar plant installer and solar solution provider, chose solar tiles for the project so as to preserve the original look of the cabin. Such solution is technically known as BIPV , or “building-integrated photovoltaics”, meaning that PV system is integrated into the building itself rather than protruding out.

Hoymiles microinverters to boost production efficiency

To complete the whole project, Ralos adopted 91 pieces of solar tiles and 6 Hoymiles MI-600 microinverters. This 2-in-1 model can connect to 2 panels, so in this case, each input is connected to 2 strings of solar tiles (each string containing 4 tiles). With microinverters, you can realize module-level maintenance and management of your PV system.

Often times, technology can be at the opposite end of nature. But with solar roof tiles, this lakeside cabin was revamped and given a sleek and modern look, yet without shedding a little aesthetic beauty of the original structure. Similar designs were also seen in one of our commercial projects in Shanghai. We are confident that with our reliable and high-performing microinverters, we will make a difference to the sustainable development of renewable energy.