Lumeta and Its Giant Stick-On Solar Module

Greentech Media

[Lumetta], a subsidiary of a large roofing contractor called DRI Companies, has devised a 400-watt solar module that essentially sticks onto the roof of a building. You just peel off the paper on the bottom of the module, line it up on the roof in relation to the other modules, and stick it on.

"We prefer to call it adhesive," joked general manager Jonathan Pickering, the former Applied Materials exec. (...) The idea is to curb the costs and difficulties associated with installing solar on commercial rooftops. (...)
"They were concerned about how to maintain the integrity of a roof after thousands of little holes" had been drilled into it to accommodate solar racks. Sticking the module to the roof eliminates the need to drill. It also generates other advantages. First, it cuts weight, an important consideration on older buildings. (...) The number of components and labor involved in an install are also greatly reduced. Davey estimates that Lumeta can curb labor by 60 percent. (...) And, because they have virtually no wind profile, the panels won't fly off in a storm. The "plumber's crack" dilemma in solar -- the fact that labor grows as a proportion of solar installations as the cost of solar panels declines -- has become the focus of a few startups such as Armageddon Energy (modular residential panels) and Zep Solar (minimalist racking). Over the past year, however, large solar module makers have begun to tackle the problem, as well. Suntech Power Holdings, for instance, makes utility-scale solar panels that fit into each other tongue-and-groove style. Solon and SunPower, meanwhile, unfurled megawatt-size solar power plant modules. Canadian Solar has adopted Zep's racks.