Solar Q&A: Are Solar Shingles Made from Recycled Tires?

One of our readers, Lynn Stockton, wrote in with the following question:

Q: I stumbled upon a solar shingle made from recycled tires – do you know anything about these?

A: Lynn, unfortunately I as yet do not know of any solar shingles made from recycled tires specifically, although it is certainly feasible, depending on the shingle’s design.

Some solar shingle manufacturers do make their shingles from a material called POLYMATRIX, which is made from recycled plastics.

POLYMATRIX has several advantages beyond being made from recycled materials (and being recyclable itself) including durability (you can walk on the shingles), zero water absorption, UV resistant, PVC free, fire retardant, and more.

The more common setup for solar shingles consists of solar cells backed by a long strip of sheet metal (which itself could be made of recycled aluminum and/or steel) that replaces a section of conventional roof shingles in a row. These are obviously more rigid than recycled rubber but nonetheless blend in quite well on most roofs.

Getting back to tires, replacements for traditional asphalt shingles are currently made from recycled tires. They are light and just as strong as asphalt, and there is no reason that thin film solar cells could not integrate with these recycled roofing shingles.

So whether or not solar shingles from recycled tires are being constructed or not, I’m not sure, but I bet I’ll be stumbling upon them soon enough myself.

And Lynn, if you can relocate where you found that information on recycled solar shingles please let us know. Thanks!

Posted on January 28th in Solar Information by Dan.