CenterCut: Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source

flexible solar panels could be placed on rooftops like shingles and could replace today's boxy solar panels that are made with rigid glass or silicon and mounted on thick metal frames. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Vitex Systems, Inc.)

ScienceDaily (08 JUNE 2009) — A transparent thin film barrier used to protect flat panel TVs from moisture could become the basis for flexible solar panels that would be installed on roofs like shingles.

Researchers at PNNL will create these flexible panels by adapting a film encapsulation process currently used to coat flat panel displays that use organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. The work is made possible by a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement recently penned between Vitex Systems and Battelle, which operates PNNL for the federal government.

Complete article at ScienceDaily

No comments:

Post a Comment

CenterCut - Alternative Energy & Sustainability

Centercut tracks the political implications of policy, tax subsidies, and direct grants on alternative energy and sustainability projects worldwide.

We review articles and scientific journals the world over to discern emerging and replacement technologies, political trends and the occational intellectual cul-de-sac.

In a world under severe stress all systems require new thinking. It is imperative that sustainability and alternative energy become mantras for creative destruction and cascading innovation. Small incremental advances will 'ripple' across our fragile orb in waves of change unimagined.

Blog Editor: Richard L. Wottrich

CenterCut = Center of Gravity

The greatest challenges in life are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity.

Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” But the mysterious absent wisdom is noise, just as knowledge absent experience is irrelevance.

We are either a marvelous human race celebrating the ascendancy of humanity, science and technology, or we are the miscreants who have created a dysfunctional world under severe stress. Our blessing is that we still have a choice.

Richard L. Wottrich

Centercut Definitions

Alternative Energy - Energy Systems derived from sources that do not deplete irreplaceable natural resources or harm the environment.

Sustainability - The ability to maintain balance of a certain process or state in any system, especially related to the depletion of world energy and water resources at a rate that cannot be replaced.

Stakeholders - The end-users or clients, the people from whom requirements will be drawn, the people who will influence the design and, ultimately, the people who will reap the benefits of a completed project.