B-Pods Holdings Pty Ltd has developed two innovative and exciting BIPV-T roof tiles with the Tractile Solar product range:
- Tractile Solar Eclipse – Tractile Solar BIPV-T technology integrates with the Tractile Interlocking Roof System
- Tractile Solar Horizon – Tractile Solar BIPV-T technology integrates with flat profile concrete tile roofs
Tractile Solar (previously known as KISStile) was a finalist in the 2006 Australian Design Awards from the Australian Technology Showcase (ATS), combines Photo-Voltaic Solar Cells with Thermal Hot Water in a common platform that can be inserted in a range of casings complementary to any roof tile design, thereby providing a world first integrated solar roof tile solution that creates both electricity and solar boosted hot water from a single unit.
Also, Tractile Solar Horizon has been the recipient of the JEC Asia 2012 Innovation Awards for Energy.
What Problem We Solve
Penetration of Solar Energy into the Australian market is currently at 7% with the stated target being 40%. Tractile Solar was developed as a solution to address this slow adoption and low penetration of solar energy in Australian homes.
- Homeowners – the majority of homeowners resist installing solar modules on their homes because the roof mounted modules are considered an eyesore affecting property values and expensive to purchase and install. Tractile Solar offers a building integrated design that fits the form of the existing roof at a price below the competition. The system is also more efficient in generating both electricity and hot water from the same area of roof reducing household energy bills
- Roof Tile Companies – Tractile Solar Horizon can be used with both new homes as well as retrofitted to existing roofs. Therefore roof tile companies can introduce this product into their new product mix and also market to their database of all past clients
- Property Developers/Builders – integrating Tractile Solar into their product mix provides opportunity to demonstrate ‘sustainability’ and ‘green’ credentials to customers and the market place
- Land Developers – in addition to demonstrating ‘sustainability’ and ‘green’ credentials to benefit development applications and marketing projects, land developers will likely incur lower infrastructure charges as communities utilising Tractile Solar will require less energy from the grid, reducing costs associated with connection
- Energy Utilities – household consumption of energy is growing rapidly through increased use of electrical goods such as air-conditioning and plasma TVs. This requires huge investment by utilities to upgrade power generation facilities and/or infrastructure to manage ‘peak-load’ requirements. ‘Smoothing’ of power demands on the grid through local generation allows utilities to delay such huge investment
- Government – ‘Renewable Energy’, ‘Greenhouse Emissions’, ‘Climate Change’, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Carbon Credits’, ‘STCs’ are all strong political issues faced by all levels of government and impacting all manner of policy and spending. Installation of Tractile Solar within a community, on public buildings as well as private residences, represents a visible action toward improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact
- Solar Module Distributors – Tractile Solar aims to be a dominant player in the residential solar market and has potential to achieve high sales volumes far in excess of products currently offered to the market
Our Market and Target Clientele
Tractile Solar Horizon can be installed either into the new home market or retrofitted to any existing concrete tile roof, while Tractile Solar Eclipse is focused on new developments.
The market opportunity for Tractile Solar is most evident in countries that have introduced either legislation on energy efficiency and reduced consumption, and/or countries that provide financial incentives such as rebates on new installations, such as Australia.
Competitive Landscape
Tractile Solar’s current direct market competitors are:
- Solar Panel Photovoltaic Modules; and,
- Solar Thermal Hot Water Tanks
both products typically being roof mounted and sold separately.
A number of building integrated technologies are starting to emerge, however, none combine both Solar Photovoltaic and Thermal Hot Water in a single roof tile package.
- Pricing – Tractile Solar Horizon will be priced at parity with current Solar systems. Given the lower production costs combined with superior energy generation, a highly aggressive market pricing strategy can be implemented to capture market share
- Our Value Proposition – clean technologies and building integrated products are considered to be the next major growth industries. The Tractile Solar BIPV-T technology delivers significant energy gains over comparative roof mounted systems. Due to a more efficient delivery platform the product’s installed costs is below the price point that is restricting broad adoption of Solar Energy in all new buildings. We intend to capture a significant portion of this market opportunity.
Intellectual Property
The IP includes:
- Patent AU Patent Application 2007302616. Patents filed in 29 countries, favorable expedited examiner’s report, patents already granted in several countries.
- Materials and manufacturing processes know-how
- Market research, knowledge, and contacts
Credentials
Tractile Solar Horizon has been the recipient of the JEC Asia 2012 Innovation Awards for Energy.
Ergon Energy has funded the manufacturing and installation of two 1.5KW systems and the evaluation project has run for a period of 12 months. One installation site is at the Bond University campus, linked to the Bond University Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture. The institute’s building is the first in Australia to achieve a 6-Star Green Star Education PILOT Certified Rating for design, by the Green Building Council of Australia. As such, the Institute is ideally positioned to collaborate on this active research with Tractile Solar/Ergon Energy demonstration. The Bond University Tractile Solar system has been completed in 2011 and is currently up and running, allowing Tractile and Ergon Energy to collect precious data.
The other Tractile Solar test site has been installed as part of the Townsville City Council Rowes Bay depot.