A Canadian firm is gearing up to produce a cloth–like solar panel that will cost less than current technologies. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A Canadian firm is gearing up to produce a cloth–like solar panel that will cost less than current
technologies. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
This is a photo-voltaic solar panel, but instead of being a sheet of silicon on glass, it’s tiny beads
of silicon between layers of aluminum foil and sealed in a plastic sheeting. It’s strong, light
weight, and flexible.
Ron Jutras is a company officer with Spheral Solar in Cambridge, Ontario:
“The primary difference between this particular solar panel and others that people are used to seeing
maybe on highway signs or potentially on buildings, is the fact that it is a pliable system, meaning
that it can be bent and wrapped around products.”
So the solar panels can be put on facades of buildings or draped over a roof. It also will come
in different colors, giving architects some flexibility. Because it uses much less silicon than
current technology, the price is expected to be quite a bit lower. The first commercial shipments of
the flexible solar panels are expected next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.