Next Big Future: Maximizing Energy from Solar Panels on Slanted Roofs with kirigami shapechanging solar cells [Reblogged from http://nextbigfuture.com ]
Researchers have shown a new way to help solar cells track the sun as it moves across the sky, which could boost a panel’s energy generation by 40 percent. Most of the solar panels in the world sit on rooftops at a fixed angle, so they miss out on capturing energy during parts of every day. Now researchers have shown that by cutting solar cells into specific designs using kirigami, a variation of origami which entails cutting in addition to folding, they can allow the cells to track the sun’s angle without having to tilt the whole panel. This could…
Read more