CRC-P Project 2016-2018

Printed Solar Films for Value-added Building Products for Australia – CRC-P with Solafast and Norwood, 2016-2018.

The project was led by the Australian SME Solafast, in partnership with CSIRO and Norwood Industries.  The aim of this project was to develop solar-integrated premium roofing products, while progressing the printed solar technology to pilot-scale demonstration stage.  A new-to-the-world premium roofing product was developed.  This product takes advantage of the unique features of printed solar films (flexible, lightweight, low cost), integrating them into an innovative, safe and easy to install roofing product for large-span commercial structures.  These commercial structures typically cannot support the weight of conventional silicon solar panels.

Major milestones were reached during this project, including printing 500 metres of solar film on our roll-to-roll printers and developing an in-line lamination method to integrate printed solar film into the roofing sheet. This is a great example of innovative CSIRO technology value adding to established Australian manufacturing.