Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Flexible Stick-On Solar Panels

Global Solar has just introduced a line of flexible solar modules that have been 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. According to the company, the modules are quicker to installer, lighter, and don't require any penetrations into the roof.

The installed cost of Global Solar modules is about the same as traditional polycrystalline silicon panels with racks, but because there is no need for spacing between racks, the flexible thin-film modules can cover more roof space and generate more power.

The company plans to sell its solar modules--long strips of solar panels almost 19 feet long and 1.5 feet wide--through roof membrane manufacturers. The solar cells are made from a combination of copper, indium, selenium, and gallium (CIGS) and perform comparatively well in areas that don't have direct sun, Poirier said.

Global Solar’s high-quality solar technology is incorporated into a range of products from its foldable Flex Portable Solar Chargers, offering everyone from outdoors enthusiasts to commuters to military applications a solution to charge their tools, to solar panels in traditional arrays around the globe, to the burgeoning technologies surrounding building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and the infinite array of possibilities therein.

State-of-the-art facilities producing 75 megawatts of power are located in Tucson, Arizona USA as well as in Berlin, Germany manufacture Global Solar’s solar products, they are then distributed worldwide to serve customers on each continent.

The company plans to get certification for the modules, which are being evaluated by roofing membrane companies now, by the end of the year and hopes to start production early next year.



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