Are flexible solar panels finally catching up?

"Sun Cat" Batteries
A few years ago I documented a DIY project where I created self charging batteries using flexible solar panels. However, the batteries where just an experiment in evidencing; the art of make believe in realising new product concepts and evaluate said concept concept before any actual work is done. This experiment was part of my master thesis on how consumers could be encouraged to produce electricity in their own homes.

One of the key components missing at the time to make those batteries more than a mirage, where the lack of proper flexible solar panels. For some time there has been "bendable" panels available, but those where still attached to quite thick substrate.

Actual cells in use. Not too curvy, these are!
Now I find that researchers at +Stanford Engineering  has developed a method to peel off the thin film Photo Voltaic (PV) cells from its substrate and transfer them onto various objects, even those with curved surfaces. Their method includes soaking the panels in hot water to loosen the cells from the original substrate which sounds suitable for any DIY project.

The substrate is normally made of glass, not flexible, in solar panels. Substrate can also be made of special polymers (plastics) for thin film solar panels that are more or less flexible. The major new development, as far as I understand, is that the substrate is no longer necessary for the cells to function and thus can be removed. These new PV cells can be applied to non special materials and could give product designers new freedoms in adding powers sources to their products without compromising in their designs.

Maybe this technology could be used to produce tear off pages in a booklet for DIYers to stick on any odd project laying around? Sign me up for a couple!

Happy New Year!

Kommentarer

  1. Anonym10. februar 2013 kl. 12:42

    Hi to every body, it's my first pay a quick visit of this webpage; this web site consists of remarkable and in fact fine information in favor of readers.

    My webpage: buy a car with bad credit
    Also see my website - buying a car with bad credit,buy a car with bad credit,how to buy a car with bad credit,buying a car,buy a car,how to buy a car

    SvarSlett
  2. Anonym21. februar 2013 kl. 14:51

    We're a gaggle of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your web site provided us with valuable info to work on. You've done a formidable job and our entire community
    will probably be thankful to you.

    my website :: how to buy a car with bad credit

    SvarSlett

Legg inn en kommentar

Populære innlegg fra denne bloggen

The SunCat Batteries - DIY prototypes

Bilde
Rechargeable Batteries with Solar Cells Project by Knut Karlsen At home i always have some batteries lying around, either rechargeable or normal ones. Usually they are empty, but i'd like them to be always fully charged. I could use a normal charger and there is a lot of solar devices that charge rechargeable batteries. I wanted it simpler; why hasn't anyone made a battery with integrated solar cells? The idea of the "SunCat" batteries where born. The batteries should just bask in the sun like a cat and left for a while, in a sunny window, they would slowly recharge. Prototypes During my research for my diploma i was in touch with scientists at IFE that experimented with the production of flexible solar cells. They where kind enough to send me some samples in the right dimensions that i could use for the prototypes (full set at flickr ): I had some older NiMH rechargeable batteries that i glued the flexible Photo Voltaic (PV) cells onto. The PV cells are rated at
Les mer

Energy Dashboards in the Wild

Bilde
Energy Monitoring The more I dig into this material, the more I find people and companies that are developing ideas on energy managment. Living in Norway and looking into this field has some disadvantages: Awareness to energy consumption and systems to increase awareness are almost non existing. Utilities stopped charging for over use and peak consumption a long time ago and since then people have had few incentives for tracking those parameters. Regulations, such as mandatory smart meter installations, are very important for change on a big scale in energy infrastructure at the moment. The previous post targeted independent initiatives to enable people to track their energy consumption and the reduce bill or carbon footprint. Barack Obama throwing money at energy initiatives these days could account for some of google's interest. I conducted a search mission for the energy companies endeavours in the home monitoring market: Energy Dashboards The utilities that either have automat
Les mer

Connection Proxy on Windows 7 x64

This is how I got the Connection Proxy from the Sony Ericsson Java ME SDK to work on Windows 7 64-bit version: Install your phones PC Suite to get all phone networking drivers Get & Install 32-bit JDK Get & Install semc_java_me_cldc_sdk.2-5-0-5.exe (Place it in default location C:\) Get the eclipse SDK for win 64 as we need one file from this zip. Get RXTX library as we need additional files from this zip. Find "org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_64_3.5.1.v3555a.jar" in eclipse SDK & place it in the folder "C:\SonyEricsson\JavaME_SDK_CLDC\OnDeviceDebug\lib\devexp\plugins" Edit "connectionproxy.cmd" so that "org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_3.4.0.v3448f.jar" becomes "org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_64_3.5.1.v3555a.jar". Find "RXTXcomm.jar" in the rxtx package & place it in the "C:\SonyEricsson\JavaME_SDK_CLDC\OnDeviceDebug\bin" folder Place "rxtxSerial.dll" in the "C:\SonyEricsson\Java
Les mer