Cost of a retractable solar roof on Palram in south Wales has been slashed to £5.6m, but the cost of building the roof will be kept the same.
The roof will not be fully retractable as the company had to use a special machine to fold it down in order to get the panels out of the way, but it will be cheaper than a traditional roof.
This is the first time Palram has used retractable roofs, but a number of other companies have already done so, including Powerwall and SES, as well as others that have recently gone into the space.
The company has been working on the project for the past three years and is looking to make it the most cost-effective roof for the market.
“We had to go out and use a machine to turn it around,” Mr Thomas said.
“The reason why we had to do that is that we were looking at the roof as a service product, we weren’t looking at it as a roof, we were just looking at a product that we could offer to customers.”
A lot of people wanted solar panels, but people were sceptical and it was a big problem to be able to get people to invest in them.
The fact that it was able to do it was the greatest achievement in our business,” Mr Tom said.
The panels will cost about £1.5m, and Mr Thomas will need to sell about 250 panels a day to cover the cost.
The project will be carried out over the next five years and Mr Tom is aiming to have it completed in 2020.
He said that with the number of people in Wales interested in solar, Palram was the only company that could deliver the product at a reasonable price.
Palram Solar was founded by Andrew and Paul Tom in 2007.
The couple have since expanded their business to include Solar Roofs and other products.
They will also build the solar panels themselves.