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Solar Shingles

Posted by michael on from the bet-your-bottom-dollar dept.

buzban writes "Wired is carrying a cool story about a solar panel technology with a form factor like roofing shingles. Sort of a beowulf cluster of small, (relatively) attractive solar panels, if you will..."

4 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Two Words by zygote · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hail Storm.
    This sounds like a great idea. I'd be all over it except that at least once a year some part of the metro area where I live gets pounded with hail.
    I didn't see anything in the article about how these tiles would be manufactured to survive this or heavy wet snow.

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    the future is here, it is just not evenly distributed - w. gibson
  2. energy independence begins at home by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about paving roads with solar panels, under some hard (metamaterial) transparent aluminum? About 16M hectares of America is paved road and parking, so 20W:m^2 (of the 1KW:m^2 peak insolation) would give 32GW. That's 3.2E13W, when US power consumption is 1E13.

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    make install -not war

    1. Re:energy independence begins at home by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Counting only the cost of the fuel is stupid. How much does it cost when the coal exhaust comes back as a string of hurricanes? Or an asthma epidemic? It's also stupid to think that we must choose one or the other alternate energy strategies. Wouldn't it be great for America to be a net exporter of energy to the world again?

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      make install -not war

  3. The government's interest by Gothmolly · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why is do people always insist that the government take charge of every fscking facet of their lives?

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