TUPROOFS - Thermal Solar under Photovoltaic Roofing Structures project proposes the integration of Thermal Solar and PV in a complete large scale structural insulated roof panel that can be placed directly on to new, refurbished buildings to provide a renewable energy producing roof structure in one simple operation and where for domestic scale properties the panel can be entirely self supporting, affording major construction savings.
By integrating the PV wafers and thermal channels with the roof structure manufacturing costs will be minimised and the PV (especially) becomes a marginal cost building component thus delivering a roof that pays for itself and which also has minimal installation costs - for the roof and for the solar elements. The project objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of integrated solar/PV/Thermal/SIP roof panels that are more (cost) efficient for the construction process, highly efficient in the collection of thermal energy and generate electricity at grid parity eliminating the need for incentives and can be implemented in new domestic and commercial buildings with an especial applicability off-grid in developing countries to deliver industry, work, communications and light.

Potential Impact:
The withdrawal of renewable energy incentives and Part L2016 without zero energy means the 2020 and 2030 CO2 targets may not be met. TUPROOFS seeks to deliver a cost effective solution for industry that will meet these targets.
While we know well how to insulate buildings and ensure that energy is retained, the final lap to energy neutrality requires some element of renewable generation. To date renewables such as PV and Heat Pumps are expensive needing incentivisation. Further while PV is a suitable source of generation for buildings, current systems require fixing of manufactured modules to existing and new roofs, with fixing systems potentially impairing roof integrity. (Flexible BIPV is an exception but current products are costly and have fixed lengths). This project posits a solution to this issue by integrating photovoltaics and solar thermal systems directly to large structural insulation panels (SIPs), so that installation cost and integrity issues are minimised and very rapid construction of a roof structure is possible.
Such structures require strength in compression on their upper side. The solar thermal collector being a multi-layer channel matrix can be designed to provide this strength and also cool the PV element, extract residual solar heat to potentially generate electricity (with low grade Organic Rankine Cycle heat cycles ), drive absorption cooling, feed local heating or be stored. TUPROOFS will validate the technical feasibility of the concept and the potential business cases which, with our cost estimates, will remain profitable at export grid payments of under £0.06 per Kwh. The product could become a "The roof that pays for itself" for commercial (warehouse)/ agricultural new build and potentially 15% of the 250,000 new highly efficient homes needed in the UK every year. We will further research the feasibility for cost reduced "containerised" production units to make large PVT structural insulating panels on-site tailored to individual buildings/houses to provide energy, heat and insulation and if deployed in developing countries, allow rural communities self-sufficiency, communications, cooling and light industry and thus reduce migration to urban slums or to developed contries.
It will explore such business cases and engage with UKTI if potential is shown. The project will spend significant resources establishing the concept's feasibility, deliver an indepth report of feasibility, manufacturing options and methods, business case viability and exploitation by the partners. Sample demonstration panels will be created, tested and used for dissemination, exploitation and fund raising.