Solar Panels Have Changed

I’ve been fiddling around with the idea of getting some solar panels, but the thought of having someone chuck a baseball into a panel array like the one in the photo and breaking it to smithereens has had me hesitating. On top of that, I was worried about the weight of the snow if we had ten or more inches at a time breaking them, too. So, no panels yet. Then I saw that the small flexible solar panels that people have been using to charge small things like cell phones on the go have been supersized! In its February/March issue, Mother Earth News has an in depth article about thin film solar panels and all the possible uses for these sturdier, lightweight panels.

Some of the potential uses for thin-film solar panels include shaping them to the surface of your less than square living quarters, which means that yurt dwellers and people who live in tents for long periods of time as they hike or do nature studies will be able to easily use solar power, and putting a long stretch of them on top of a roof over a parking lot to provide massive amounts of solar power. Cool, huh? But the thing that really has me excited is the way you can “shingle” your house’s roof in these lightweight panels without worrying about having your roof stand up under the additional weight.

Now, if the cost of the technology will catch up to the amazing developments in weight and flexibility, off grid living may just turn out to be the norm instead of the exception!

Photo: SXC