Thin Film Solar Panels

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Making Buildings Beautiful With Thin Film Solar Panels

When you think of adding solar power to a home, what's the first image that pops into your head? If you're like most people, you think of giant, bulky solar panels mounted either in your back yard (leaving less room for the kids to play), or on your rooftop, which, while it's nice to have the power, is a bit of an eyesore. If you're trying to add this green technology to your office building, the options aren't much better.

Fortunately, the answer to this dilemma is here. Several companies have perfected thin film solar panels which, when applied to a house or other building, is inconspicuous and even adds to the subtle beauty of it. No more bulk on your roof or back yard. Like a chameleon, they blend into the surroundings of the home or office.

Like Printing A Document

Thin film solar panels are made in a way similar to printing out a document. A panel is made either by applying silicon or another, equally-suited material to glass or steel, or between two pieces of some kind of flexible laminate material. The process is called monolithic integration, and there are many start-up businesses that have turned the process into something akin to printing newspapers, rather than making them like computer chips.

Integrated Into Shingles

When you build your house, you pick certain shingles because they look nice, will protect your home from the elements and they match with the theme of your home. Everything integrates. The big, bulky solar panels, however, cover up those lovely shingles that you spent so much money on. But up until now, that's been the only option. That, or taking up valuable real estate on your property.

Now, with thin film solar panels, the shingles can have the solar cells integrated into them. Other building that normally use steel roofing can just use the steel silicon-printed sheets in place of regular steel. Homes with traditional shingles can use the plastic overlay or buy special shingles with the solar cells already printed onto them.

Glass Buildings

For home or, even better, buildings that have a lot of glass, like the popular high-rise, all window buildings, can have the solar-catching material printed right into the glass, without any loss of vision through them. It's easy to see how many economic-minded business people who are having buildings erected might want to include these windows to bring down the cost of powering their new properties.

Thin film solar panels have been an idea that has been worked on for decades. A large part of the slow growth is the exotic materials used to make them, but now, with more knowledge and better production techniques, these panels could be in more wide-spread use in a decade or so. Industry leaders are expecting the new panels to find more markets and to grow exponentially. While moderately expensive now, as the market grows and changes, prices are expected to drop, and more people will include them in their home designs or upgrades.