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The Midwest Roofing Contractors Association (MRCA) announced its participation in an innovative solar demonstration project which features photovoltaic (PV) thin-film laminates directly adhered to various roofing membranes. The Diamond Solar Solutions system was installed at the Diamond Roofing Company, Manhattan, Kansas, and marks the first commercial-scale solar roofing project in the state of Kansas. The system will generate supplemental electricity for the host building by producing just over 10,000 watts of power. Interconnecting into the local utility’s electricity distribution grid will allow the capture of excess power and the potential for net-metering credits.
MRCA’s Technical and Research (T&R) committee is providing project design and instrument installation to monitor and record temperature fluctuations under various roof membranes. A data acquisition system comprised of twenty-seven thermocouples installed on nine different membranes will measure and record temperature data 24 hours a day for the next three years. In addition, a rooftop weather station has been installed to measure and record air temperature, wind velocity, solar radiation and many other types of weather data on a 24/7 basis.
According to MRCA’s PV Task Force chairman, Kevin Gwaltney, “the 3-year project will provide useful information to MRCA members and roofing contractors as to operating temperature extremes that may be harmful to some roof membranes. Interactive monitoring of the performance of these solar roofing systems will allow the development and dissemination of “best roofing practice” guidelines for contractors interested in installing photovoltaics.”
In addition to roofing specific data measurements, the visual data monitoring display will measure the energy generated in kilowatt hours to track the impact that the solar roofing system will have on the environment in tangible terms – such as gallons of gas, dozens of light bulbs, pounds of carbon dioxide and numbers of trees offset by the system.
MRCA will display active data measurements and report project progress on its website, www.mrca.org. Live data captures are scheduled to begin in mid-September.
About MRCA: The Midwest Roofing Contractors Association (MRCA) is a trade association representing 450 roofing contractors from across the United States. The MRCA focuses on contractor support and advocacy through benefits and services designed to build a member’s business and to improve the roofing industry. MRCA’s T&R committee is renowned for its research and reporting of roofing systems utilized by its members and the industry. Recent projects include research on synthetic underlayments, self-adhered modified membranes, fire testing of aged-membranes, FM issues and asphalt shingles, For more information, visit www.mrca.org.
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