Solar Panels As Building Clothing

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Solar Panels As Building Clothing

Posted by michael on Friday February 14, 2003 @02:14AM from the well-dressed-skyscraper dept.

Makarand writes "A Canadian company is developing a flexible solar-power generating material that can be draped over any building. This will allow buildings with curves and complex shapes to use solar panels. The new material is made of silicon beads, each acting as a solar cell, placed between two aluminum foils and sealed on the sides with plastic. The manufacturing process for the silicon beads can use waste silicon from the chip-making industry. The material has an overall efficiency of 11 per cent which is comparable to the performance of conventional photovoltaic cells. The material looks like blue denim and architects might love to work with it."

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First Post! :P by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-14 02:16 · Score: -1, Offtopic

duh
fp... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-14 02:16 · Score: -1, Offtopic

..fuckers O_O
need energy? by Joe+the+Lesser · 2003-02-14 02:21 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Forget Red Bull, solar power r0x0rs! I'm gonna raid all day!

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These will be cheap until we say they are dumping by asmithmd1 · 2003-02-14 02:34 · Score: -1, Offtopic

The federal (Canadian) government, through Technology Partnerships Canada, is investing $29.5 million in the project.

Ottawa describes the government money as a risk-sharing investment.

It says it is "conditionally repayable, usually in the form of royalties based on company sales."

Right now there is a 29% tariff on lumber from Canada. The US has found them guilty of "dumping" lumber on us. What would we do if they started dumping gold or diamonds on us? Guess what, Canada has a lot more trees than the US does and they are willing to sell them to the US cheap. What ever happened to NAFTA?

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Re:These will be cheap until we say they are dumpi by mrtroy · 2003-02-14 03:00 · Score: -1, Offtopic

due to your poor logging practices you can no longer supply enough pulp and paper for your country
where are you going to magically get more? oh wait you turn to canada...just like for electricity.
you run out of a resource, buy from canada, then complain canada is "dumping" that on you.
and canada could somehow magically "dump" gold and diamonds on you? haha...all of these resources have trading prices which are determined in stock-market like conditions which rely on availability and such. why the hell would canada sell you diamonds for cheaper to "dump" them on you when diamonds is such a restricted resource and only a certain number are produced yearly to keep demand above supply, which keeps prices high.
fool.

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Offtopic: M$ add on slashdot? by hardaker · 2003-02-14 03:22 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Ok, I know this is way off topic but it was in this comment set that I saw my first M$ add on slashdot. I haven't been paying the extra add-free slashdot fee and thus get the in-line advertisements which I normally glance at and scroll down. I was shocked today to find that M$ actually wanted to advertise here (especially considering the borg icon their news items get here).
Of course, this may be enough to get me to pay for the add-free fee.

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Re:How much time ? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-14 03:24 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Now you can use Natalie Portman's pants to heat your grits!
Re:OT: Re:Good idea, but probably not a cost-cutti by goatboy_14 · 2003-02-14 03:28 · Score: 0, Offtopic

it was contra
In other news... by sunilonline · 2003-02-14 05:19 · Score: 0, Offtopic

JC Penny has all stocked jeans on sale... Looks like my plain old denim jeans are obsolete :(