"The new roof on The Mitchell building has been done for a couple of weeks now. But if you’ve been in downtown Fuquay-Varina lately, you have likely seen more activity up there. Baker Roofing is now installing solar panels!! These are not typical solar panels that you’ve seen mounted on racks, rather these are 1/4″ thick x 18″ wide x 72″ long flexible panels (manufactured by Uni-Solar) that adhere to the top of the roof. They are called BIPV’s or Building Integrated Photovoltaics and are flexible laminates that adhere to the barrel shape of the roof. Eighty of these panels are being laid side by side and will combine to capture 15kwH annually."
This is just down the road from Stick Boy, our local bakery and Saturday morning post-library hang out. So far the only tenant is a wine bar with some kind of wacky automated tasting technology. The amount of sun we get down here, and the intensity of it, makes me wonder if similar panels would work on our house.
