Installing clean, reliable, inflation-proof solar power is easier than ever, thanks to the invention of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) laminates that can be bonded directly onto metal roofing panels. Unlike crystalline PV material, there's no need for obtrusive racks and heavy, expensive glass. Instead, unbreakable thin-film PV is produced using amorphous silicon, encapsulated in Teflon and other polymers.

Thanks to pioneering work by Steve Heckeroth, a Mother Earth News contributing editor and the director of building-integrated photovoltaics for Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics, this thin-film PV is now available in easily shippable, 16-inch-wide rolls. It's a peel-and-stick laminate. You just unroll the sheet, lay it faceup on a flat metal roofing panel and press it onto the panel while your assistant pulls the protective sheet off the sticky backing.

Invented by ECD Ovonics co-founder Stan Ovshinsky, thin-film laminates offer several advantages over crystalline PV panels. (See Meet Stan Ovshinsky, the Energy Genius for a profile of Ovshinsky and his remarkable renewable energy inventions.) Thin-film sheets perform better in high temperatures and in partly shaded conditions, and they require 100 times less silicon, which means thin-film PV is expected to become less expensive than crystalline as production capacity expands over the next few years.

We had a chance to get a firsthand look at this exciting new PV option after Heckeroth offered to install it on the new metal roof I was putting on my small barn last summer. We invited the public, and Heckeroth led a workshop about solar power. Nearly 50 folks spent an unusually hot, 100 degree May day watching and helping as Heckeroth showed volunteers how to bond the thin-film PV laminates to the metal roof panels. Then local architect and builder Kenton Knowles and his Global Homes crew installed the panels on the barn. As the sequence of photos shows, it's hard to imagine a simpler way to install grid-tied, solar-electric power on a new or replacement metal roof. It took only five to 10 minutes to apply each PV sheet to a roof panel.

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Our new metal roof was 24-gauge Galvalume steel from Englert, Inc. It should last at least 50 years, and the steel can be recycled, making it an excellent sustainable choice for any building. After the roofing panels were installed, Heckeroth danced briefly along the ridge to snap the connecting wires together, and then our electrician, Robert Gore, wired the direct-current output from the thin-film PV into a Fronius inverter. The inverter converts the direct-current power generated by the solar panels to standard 110-volt alternating current. Then the power flows through the new meters installed by the utility company (at no charge!) and into my home.

The sun was blazing, and the roofers were really sweaty, but as soon as Gore flipped the switch, everyone smiled as the inverter kicked on and the digital readout quickly climbed to "1,530 watts," showing exactly how much electricity the new system was delivering to the house. Anytime the house needs more power than the PV is producing, the system draws from the utility grid.