Solar panels go flat and easy on the rooftop at this Sharjah project - will this be a hot trend?
By offering more space for solar panels, they can deliver quite the clean energy boost
Dubai: Solar panels sticking out on the rooftop? That’s so old-school.
A Dubai company is now offering solar panels fully integrated into the roof of the building, having delivered its first project in Sharjah for a mosque near Khor Fakkan beach. What this means is it allows more space to be freed up than with standard rooftop solar panel installations – and by extension more energy to be generated.
“This integrated panels can deliver up to 40 per cent more energy in the same given space,” said Deepak Bhatia of Uncle’s Shop Building Material Trading. “The ‘ATUM’ technology is from our partner in India, Visaka Industries, having delivered the proof-of-concept at the mosque project, we will aiming for more wins with new buildings under construction.” The cost of the project was close to Dh400,000.
Rooftop solar panels are trending hot these days – recently, Ibn Battuta Mall and Dragon Mart confirmed they will be going all solar. Up to 12,000 panels will be installed, most likely before year-end.
Lighting up
For the Khor Fakkan work, “We signed the contract last November with Sharjah Investment Authority and supplied the panels shipped in from India,” said Bhatia. “We awarded the installation process to a local contractor under the supervision of our tech team.
“This is our first venture in the UAE with ATUM panels. This type of project typically takes around 30 days to complete from structure to commissioning of the EPC works. Its installed capacity is 26.6Kw with 82 panels over 164 square metre. It will generate on average up to 120 Kwh per day.
“Two persons at a time can easily walk on the panel without any damage to the panel, which in not possible with other regular solar panels.”