Strauss Stima Tile

Market Suggested Retail Price

$240.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Systems are designed, delivered, and installed by Strauss Energy. Currently, Strauss Energy partners with local housing developers, building constructors, and warehouses to promote the product.

Manufacturing/Building Method

Strauss Energy outsources the manufacturing of this product to Shenzhen Joolpower located in China, where it is mass-produced.

Intellectural Property Type

Patent Protected

User Provision Model

Strauss Energy partners with building constructors and housing developers to offer the product for renovations or new construction of households. Interested users from domestic households, commercial or industrial sectors can also register their home or building to further be evaluated for a building-integrated solar photovoltaic installment. Strauss technicians visit the requested site to assess the energy requirements, and then they measure them against other parameters (size of the roof, local climate conditions) to determine the appropriate size and capacity for an installation.

Distributions to Date Status

As of 2020, this product has been installed in 1,400 households. Strauss Energy expects to reach 35,000 households by 2021.

Design Specifications

The Stima Tile is a BIPV product composed mainly of a roofing tile and an embedded photovoltaic panel. The tile element is made from a mix of ceramic and plastic and the solar cells are embedded on tempered glass. This product comes in various shapes, sizes and colors to fit households, office premises, warehouses, carports stadiums, and markets. The tiles can either be added onto a new structure or else placed on an existing roof if it is a sufficiently straight and even surface. If a new structure is used, the tiles must be installed onto appropriately spaced and sized battens. Because of the difference in the dimensions between the Stima Tile and conventional roofing tiles, structural battens need to be spaced accordingly with the respective Stima Tile in use. A system solar photovoltaic circuit is completed with an array of 12 interconnected units of Stima Tiles that are connected to inverters, charge, and system controllers that are also connected to batteries or a compressed air hydraulic energy storage. Users can opt to add a smart-grid system to monitor each tile's performance. The manufacturer estimates that approximately 1/3 of roof coverage is enough to power a whole house. The units of this product come in four different sizes:

• 8W - 443x320mm
• 24W - 642x320mm
• 50W - 1055x420mm
• 150W - 1532x700mm

Technical Support

Provided by the manufacturer. Strauss Energy has solar certified technicians in-house.

Replacement Components

If a unit (tile) breaks a new unit can be ordered from the manufacturer to replace it. Other replacement components include batteries, inverters, and charge and system controllers.

Lifecycle

50-year warranty on roofing element and 25 years on electrical components.

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

The designers aim to reduce installation costs of roofing tiles by 30% and electricity bills by 25%. Strauss Energy assures that its users can obtain a return on their investment in 84 months from energy savings and extra power generation and income from electricity sales. A household Strauss Tile system is designed so that users can produce more than twice their electricity consumption.

Vetted Performance Status

A case study carried out by Heinrich Böll Stiftung on the Gaitheri Secondary School Solar PV Roof, Strauss Energy first proof of concept project, showed that since the installation of solar power, the school enjoys uninterrupted power supply which enables the teachers to offer computer classes for extended hours unlike before when they had to rely on the intermittent grid power. Testing carried out by Strathmore Energy Research Center (SERC) on the performance characteristics of six  8W BIPV modules connected in a string determined a PV string power of 50.45 W and PV power per module of 8.41 W at Standard Test Conditions (STC). SERC concluded that the performance at STC yielded more power by 5.1% of the rated but with higher temperatures, the efficiency greatly reduces to less power generation.

Safety

Workers may be exposed to the regular dangers of a construction site that include working at heights and with sharp tools. Precaution must be taken regarding electrical contacts or wiring, the person handling them must use adequate safety gear. If too much pressure is applied to the photovoltaic panel, the device might break and cause bodily injury or electrical shock. Minor risk of burns exists due to the heating of the photovoltaic panel’s surface by the sun.

Complementary Technical Systems

As an alternative to battery storage systems, this product can be incorporated with a compressed air hydraulic energy storage (CAES) system, which at the same time provides clean water as a byproduct that can be used by households or other compounds.

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

Strauss Energy claims the Stima Tile complies with the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Strauss Energy has been certified as a B Corporation since 2018 and in 2019 was included in B Corps's Best For The World: Environment List. In 2018, Strauss Energy Ltd. applied to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for a Electric Power Generation and Supply permit for its power plants.  

Other Information

Strauss Energy was included in the 2017 German Energy Agency's Top 100 Start-ups from a global initiative: "Start Up Energy Transition". Strauss Energy won Best Growing Business Award from the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship 2017. Because of her work at Strauss Energy, Charity Wanjiku, Strauss Energy co-founder and COO, was included in former U.S President Barack Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University in 2016, as part of the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Network. Strauss Energy co-founder and CTO, Daisy Karimi Muthatmia, was a Mandela Washington Fellow in the Young African Leader Initiative, a program that helped develop the company's organizational development and business launch.