Solar Shingles

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..."

Comments

More Olde News...

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

A duplex just down the block had these installed 4 years ago. Every time I go by, I'm tempted to ask them if they still work.

Re:More Olde News...

[chewedtoothpick]

The ones that the healthy contstruction company I work for have given no problems in the 6 or so years that we have been installing them... We are actually working on a project, that thanks to these shingles, the entire 28 townhome project will be a zero-energy project which will be contributing to the grid as opposed to draining...

nope

[my_fake_account]

"Pernick said solar roofs would probably be adopted most quickly in states such as Hawaii and California where the cost differential between electricity derived from solar and fossil fuels is not as great."

I lived in Hawaii for almost four years. Very few people use solar. Even for hot water. Instead they use electricity that is supplied by diesil burning plants.

I talked to native Hawaiians about solar and mostly got blank stares-- even from one guy in HVAC. The only people out there using solar are hippies or those who just happened to move into an apartment or house with solar.

Most people don't think about solar. Just like most people don't think about coal/NG/nuclear/hydro turbines. If solar is going to happen, it's going to take a concerted effort by... somebody. I'd assume it would be in the government's best interest, but apparently it's more important to fight for oil.

Re:nope

[my_fake_account]

except for hot water. I agree-- there is really no need to have any air conditioning or heating in Hawaii-- the trade winds take care of the heat, and it is rarely cold (57 degrees F.-- brrr!) But hot water is a huge energy expenditure, and has nothing to do with photovoltaics, and is easier and cheaper that PV, but still, people don't even consider it.

Re:energy independence begins at home

[xott]

It wouldn't matter what it was made of, but any effort to get at some of the huge amount of energy falling upon roads around the world is a great idea.
Roading takes a huge amount of space, is only utilised a small percentage of the time and is daily bombarded with a large amount of solar energy. If it was a cheap, clean technology, it would be far better for developing countries to use solar rather than expensive non-renewable technology.

Re:energy independence begins at home

[Randym]

How about paving roads with solar panels, under some hard (metamaterial) transparent aluminum? About 16M hectares of America is paved road and parking..

While you are right that there is an inordinately large amount of paved area, I think another poster has enlightened you on the transparent aluminum problem.

Still, along those same lines: just covering all parking lots with these panels would be a big step forward. Additionally, parking structures could have these *both* over the top level *and* down the southern exposures. The municipality who paid for the installation would then recover the cost of the panels from their reduced energy costs and/or reselling the energy thus generated back to the electric company.

An additional benefit is that all those parking spaces are now protected from the weather, thus reducing maintenance costs for any car parked there.

And while we're at it, we could use the superstructure that supports the solar panels to also support small wind turbines. Careful design of parking structures could ensure that wind that blows through the structure is accelerated (by narrowing the apertures), thus increasing its usability when captured at the other side of the structure.

In any case, Doc, that was very nice forward thinking.