Creating a Solar Roof Using Glass Shingles

In a small Northern California town, called Grass Valley, I found this glass roof several years ago.

I was fascinated by how the maker has used glass, as shingles, to provide a wonderful waterproof roof for a greenhouse. This glass roof can be called the ultimate solar roof, the direct sunlight goes through these solar shingles and provides healthy sun rays, to the plants below. Arguably this design may not be practical for homes and commercial type roofing, but it is an example of “out of the box” thinking and it certainly does work well for this greenhouse roof.

Using glazing, carpentry, and roofing skills, this roof even has a gable and valley designed into it. Using angled cut shingles and incorporating them into a metal valley system, it was designed too and runs the rainwater off the roof very efficiently. As a roofer, I was amazed to see this roof and learned something new that day.

Near the top of this glass roof, there is also a solar window designed for ventilation. From the underside of the roof, using a pole, the window can be opened, so to remove excessive hot air from the greenhouse. Using hinges and overlapping the two wood-framed roofs, it looked to me, to be completely watertight.

Using these cut panes of glass as shingles and setting them into one foot on a centered rafter system with a tongue on the upper edge, is an interesting idea. The glazing compound for each window looks like it holds each of the shingles in place. I did not get any photos of the broken glass shingles but there were a few and access to repair them could be a challenge and a good reason why they were left un-repaired.

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