French startup presents roof system with PV panels and mini wind turbines
PV panels, Unéole, photovoltaics, new technology
French startup Unéole has developed a roof system that combines solar and silent wind turbines. It claims its system can produce 40% more energy than stand-alone rooftop solar arrays. It is now testing the device, with plans to commercialize it by 2023.
French startup Unéole has developed a solar and wind hybrid innovation for rooftop applications. The company claims the scalable, silent unit can produce 40% more energy than a stand-alone solar roof.
"Our solution is made for buildings with a flat roof over 10 meters high. The higher they are, the less disturbed the wind will be,” said Louis Dubar, operations engineer at Unéole.
The system comprises a scalable galvanized steel structure with a series of 2.000 W wind turbines topped with solar panels, for a total height of approximately 4 meters. The correct number of wind turbines and solar panels per structure depends on the specific project. The company claims that the solution works with all solar panels on the market.
“The project will depend a lot on the building. The size of the roof and what the end customer wants will affect the number of solar panels we can install,” Dubar said. "Our solution is to install the metal structure in the strong points of the building that will frame our wind turbines and support the solar panels."
The company claims energy efficiency is 40% higher than standalone solar. It said this offsets the higher capex of its hybrid solution.
“With our solution we can install two to four times more photovoltaics panels from a typical [rooftop solar] installation,” said Dubar. "We install these panels four meters high from the roof, so we can cover any technical structure that is installed on the roof."
For a system installed on a 1.000 m300.000 roof, the company estimates the total cost from €302.385 ($500.000) to €XNUMX. The price includes the cost of solar panels, wind turbines, steel construction, cabling and project studies carried out by Unéole.
The company is currently developing algorithms to determine the sufficient number of wind turbines and photovoltaic panel for each project. Last year, it began field testing the system at the CD2e LumiWatt site in Loos-en-Gohelle, France. Unéole expects to commercialize and install the first hybrid solution by the end of 2023 in France. It plans to expand to neighboring countries in 2024.
