Timeline: Sun Power Gets Easier with New Lightweight Panels

Coming products feature simpler solar

By Sarah Parsons Posted 04.01.2010 at 12:10 pm 11 Comments

Solar power sounds great: electricity from sunshine, for free, no carbon footprint. But solar panels often come with hefty price tags or require complex installations. Now lighter materials are making them less expensive and more convenient, whether you carry them with you or snap them onto your roof.

Tonino Lamborghini Solar Bag: Courtesy Tonino Lamborghini

Now: Power Pack

This take-anywhere electric plant won’t weigh you down. Tonino Lamborghini’s bag is the first product to use a new solar panel that’s as light, thin and flexible as fabric yet absorbs rays in any light, including artificial light or under clouds. It’s made of dye-sensitized solar cells, which trap more wavelengths in less space by wrapping each individual particle of a conductive layer in light-absorbing dye molecules. Charge a cellphone in six to eight hours, indoors or out.
Tonino Lamborghini Solar Bag with G24 DSSC Panel $200 (est.);
www.tlmm.com

Beam Data: Your phone can display power output and other stats sent by Armageddon’s solar units. Courtesy Armageddon Energy

Soon: Plug-and-Play Panels

Click together a rooftop solar system in a few hours, saving days or weeks on design and installation. Armageddon’s modular kit consists of metal frames light enough to carry up a ladder, plus 18-pound solar panels—coated in Teflon instead of heavy glass—that snap onto the frames’ tabs. The easy-to-lift, ready-made parts mean that installers don’t have to build frames on top of a house and also eliminate tricky wiring, since each frame has its own DC-to-AC converter that lets it plug straight into a home circuit breaker.
Armageddon Energy SolarClovers From $8,000; armageddonenergy.com

Mix and Match: Dow’s solar tiles blend in with standard roof shingles. Courtesy Dow

Later: Solar Shingles

Rather than laying solar panels across your roof, use them as your roof. Dow built thin-film photovoltaic cells directly into polymer shingles. They’re as protective as ordinary shingles, nail down in the same way and, in place of exposed wiring, hook together with simple electrical connectors at their ends. Some units go on sale later this year, with wide availability next year. Dow is also working on other building materials with sun power built in. —Arnie Cooper
Dow Powerhouse Solar Shingles Price not set; dowsolar.com

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11 Comments

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johnt007871

04/01/10 at 5:37 pm

I remember seeing solar shingles years ago on a home improvement tv show. I'm glad they're finally becoming somewhat mainstream. We need systems like these integrated into our lives, not stacked on top of it.

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PhilInYork

04/01/10 at 10:36 pm

What a perfect Man Purse for your iPad.

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ellenbetty

04/02/10 at 9:31 am

1/4 of the US is under asphalt. Think of all that wasted space used to grow food, generate electricity. All the steel roof on my home does is keep the rain off my head. I would love to be able to afford to cover my steel roof with something productive. But because of all the money wasted on religious wars, every thing is three times as expensive as it should be. If all the human skill and labor spent on religion was spent on building solar panels over the US high way system, factories, stores and homes, there would not be any energy shortages, there would not be any food shortages, there would not be any clean water shortages. Right now for every dollar spent taking care of people by would government, two dollars is spent to kill people. If all the money wasted on religious buildings was spent on building self powered homes that grow their own food and provide power for vehicles, there would not be any need to dig coal, drill for oil or natural gas, or build massive hydroelectric dams that fill 80 percent with silt in 40 years.

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Cuishi14

from avondale , az

04/02/10 at 4:08 pm

Chris

ellen betty, u are right. There is so much wasted space hidden under streets and parking lots its stupid. without roads and parking lots everything would be different. but the problem is we have stupid fucking cars that we need to accomidate for.

I dont know why we arent using more solar. It wil cut jobs but if everyone became eneneers insttead of minors there would be alot more innovation in the US

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otoko_tenshi

04/03/10 at 1:23 am

somebody PLEASE tell popsci the Australian website has been down for a week with a poster saying "Popsci Magazine, on sale in Australia coming October 2008".

And also that the new site format sucks anyway and they should just let us access the US site like before...
the articles aren`t even converted to metric measurements anyway...

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electron1130

04/03/10 at 7:43 am

the reason solar power is not used more is that it is too expensive to be practical, for now.

very soon though, solar is going to be the most available and obvious energy source for homes. have you seen the documentaries on the liquid with photovoltaic abilities?... unbelievable.

the coal companies execs probably cringe every time they see or hear the words solar and power used together.

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kabosht9

04/03/10 at 11:57 am

otoko that is screwed up... You have my vote, let them read our version! Please

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joedonaldson83

04/05/10 at 10:33 am

@ ellenbetty:

okay.....just FYI, wrong forum for that argument. We are talking technology here, not religious politics. And frankly religion doesn't factor into your theories nearly so much as you think it does, and from an objective standpoint rather than coming from left field.

Point A: 1/4 of the U.S is under asphalt.
Great point about under-utilized space. Its very true, does religion have anything to do with that. Resounding NO. Historically religion has been anti-change due to its rigid structure and hidden caste classes among its parishioners. Why would they want to industrialize and start to equalize across that platform?

Point B: Everything is 3 times more expensive due to religious wars.
Huh? Didn't you take economics? Religion has nothing to do with that either. Our socioeconomic structure is driven by the supply and demand principle. Prices inflate as the dollar is devalued, and demand is increased via marketing and prices inflate further because of the supply of what's available. Not because we started a jihad against another nation. In fact, we do not fight wars based on religious principle anymore (out current war in Irag is against the regime, not the religion), we are a Democracy representing the minority (which Athiesm classifies as ), and thus cannot base decisions on religious preference. Watch CNN, do they support their religions? Yes. Do they make decisions because of them? We can't even get them to agree on what time to meet for God's sake.

Point C: If all the skill and talent of the American people were invested into betterment of the country rather than "religious wars" there would be no more hunger ETC...
Did you read that post before you submitted? Wow, I'LL SAY THAT BACKWARDS...WOW. We are the single laziest country ON THE PLANET. It would be a miracle to mobilize our talent pool, and even if we did, our skilled labor pool has decreased by almost 50% in the last 10 years. So even mobilized, could we scope a change into a Utopic earth? No. If Amercians invested the time and effort that they spend relating completing irrelvant theories to current events, we would have alot more forward thinking in this country and a lot less drivel to filter through.

For the record I am a God fearing, logical, well educated, gun toting father. I just hate ignorance.

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Notatall

04/06/10 at 7:49 am

Lightweight, flexible solar panels are the gateway to introducing solar power into everything we own. I would buy this bag if it could produce enough power to recharge my laptop. Just recharging my cellphone, which is likely to be on my hip not in the bag, does not reach the real "Wow!" factor.

Sadly, I feel compelled to comment on a previous comment. Ignorance is only slightly more dangerous than made-up statistics. The U.S. leads the world in developed space in the world at around 7%. Of our 3.8 million square miles in the U.S., only about 1/80th is paved. Please troll on another magazine site with the anti-U.S., anti-religion rhetoric.

This looks like a product of the future that will use ambient light to charge our handful of goodies (iPad maybe?) that we can carry around inside. Soon we may all be wearing some kind of photo cell clothing to keep all our gear charged up during the day (wearable TomTom anyone?).

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natz

04/12/10 at 11:47 am

Man solar energy seems to be making a lot of improvements these past few months/years. Not only the update mentioned in this article which seem really cool but I read in my local newspaper ( didn't see it on this website so far) that they had a plane running 100% on solar energy doing a pretty long flight in the air recently! Their goal is to make it do the whole world pretty soon, which sounds freaking amazing.. so much transportation/distance yet 0 pollution!?

www.waterproofcast.org

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