Gone are the days when heavy glass-covered solar panels brought green light to your life. Now it’s time to make way for a magical device that wouldn’t require racking systems to hold those hefty panels. At least, solar company Global Solar promises that with its new line of flexible solar modules that were unveiled yesterday. Making a grand entry with the name “PowerFlex BIPV modules”, these new modules can be either glued to a roof or built right into roofing materials.
Since the stick-on solar panels do not require spacing between racks, so these flexible thin-film modules are capable of covering more roof space, resulting in more clean energy generation. These long strips of solar panels measuring some 19 feet long and 1.5 feet wide incorporates solar cells that are made from a combination of copper, indium, selenium, and gallium. The company claims that these solar cells perform well even in areas that don’t get direct sun.
Costing nearly the same as traditional polycrystalline silicon panels with racks, the Global Solar modules hold the potential to make solar power cheaper. There are plans to get certification and sell these modules through roof membrane manufacturers. If everything goes well, we could hope to see this new line of innovative solar modules go into production early next year.
Via: Cnet