Thin Film Solar
By Karina | September 6, 2010
These days when I’m not writing about my tiny efficient car, being a motorcycle enthusiast, or canning vegetables from my CSA, I’m probably writing about our attempts at improving the efficiency of our very old but very lovely house. There’s the insulation thing, for sure. The tax credits to complete updating the insulation in our home expire this year – as do the credits for replacing our old and inefficient furnace and water heater. We have a lot of work to do before the end of 2010!
One tax credit that we have some time to work on is the one for renewable energy – which doesn’t expire until 2016. I’ve written about my hopes to install thin film solar on our house before, and it warms my heart and raises my hopes to read about manufacturers kicking off production on these versatile, light weight, and easy to install panels. For example: here’s an easy to install stick-on module that can be easily placed on flat building roofs:
Solar company Global Solar on Tuesday introduced a line of flexible solar modules that are designed for flat commercial rooftop buildings.
Rather than install racking systems to hold heavy glass-covered solar panels, the company’s PowerFlex BIPV modules can be adhered onto a roof or built right into roofing materials. The modules are quicker to installer, lighter, and don’t require any penetrations into the roof, according to the company.
The installed cost of Global Solar modules is about the same as traditional polycrystalline silicon panels with racks, said Jean-Noel Poirier, the vice president of marketing and business development. But because there is no need for spacing between racks, the flexible thin-film modules can cover more roof space and generate more power, he said.
And a competitor, the major difference is, I think, that this panel system must be laminated to the roof while the first seems to just stick on.
SoloPower, one of many companies vying to lower the cost of solar energy, introduced on Monday a line of flexible panels for commercial rooftops.
The company makes thin-film solar cells from a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS) which is placed on a flexible foil. Its first product line is a set of solar panels designed for the flat roofs of commercial buildings.
The panels are lighter than glass-encased panels and can be installed quicker than other technologies, SoloPower CEO Tim Harris said in a statement. The panels can be laminated onto rooftops and mounted on racks to tilt the panels, Harris told Gunther Portofolio.
Of course 2016 is still pretty far away, and knowing us (how many posts have I written about installing insulation in the attic, and why is it now SEPTEMBER before the DECEMBER deadline and the work still unfinished?) we will use up every last second waiting on the best technology. It’s also worrysome to read about manufacturers leaving the market because the economy isn’t as, well, experimental and risk-taking as hit has been in the past.
But I am eternally hopeful, of course, that somehow the market will straighten itself out and we will have some really good, really easy to install, really efficient, and really inexpensive solar solutions out there by at least September 2016.
What do you hold out hopes for?
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