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Terracotta tiles (symbol image): A solar roof could also look like this using this method
Photo Credit: Tim Graham/Tim Graham/Getty Images
Especially now, with rising electricity prices, installing your own solar system on the roof of your house is particularly lucrative.
However, one category of buildings has usually been exempt from this up to now: those that are listed monuments.
If it were up to an Italian company, however, that could soon change.
The family company Dyaqua develops tiles that look like conventional terracotta tiles - but can generate electricity using solar cells.
They are already being tested at the archaeological site of Pompeii.
The »Stern« reported first.
"They look exactly like the terracotta tiles used by the Romans, but they produce the electricity we need to light the frescoes," said Gabriel Breeding, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, according to a statement.
He sees the tiles as an opportunity to save costs and contribute to sustainable development.
"Since we needed an extensive lighting system, we could either continue to use energy, leaving poles and cables behind and spoil the landscape, or we could respect them and save millions of euros."
»We can also create the look of stone, wood, concrete and brick«
The invisible solar panels used in Pompeii are said to be technically called "traditional PV bricks" and come from Camisano Vicentino, a small Italian town in Veneto.
Dyaqua developed and patented them.
The photovoltaic cells would be incorporated by hand and covered with a layer of the polymer mass.
"We can also create the look of stone, wood, concrete and brick," said Elisabetta Quagliato of Dyaqua, according to the release.
»Therefore, such a solution can be installed not only on roofs, but also on walls and floors.«
According to breeding bars, this solution will be taken into account in all future renovation and restoration projects.
"We are an archaeological site, but we also want to be a real laboratory for sustainability and valorization of intangible heritage," he said.
“Our initiative is not just symbolic.
Through the millions of tourists who visit us every year, we want to send a message to the world: cultural heritage can be managed differently and more sustainably.«
Once solutions such as traditional PV roof tiles have proven successful, they would also be tested in Greece, Spain, Slovenia, Denmark and Hungary as part of the Pocityf project.
The EU-funded project involves city councils, planners, universities, entrepreneurs and citizens in a coordinated effort to model the future development of Europe's cities.
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