I need some thin-film solar panels that could be put on a roof or on a boat and walked on. Would it be possible to put something over the panels such that I’m not actually stepping on the panels but on a clear plastic?
Also, does anyone know who produces such a solar panel?
There are some portable rollable or flexible options that may meet your needs if your power and energy requirements are minimal.
so your choices are few, and scale and implementation may be problematic.
thin film modules that are flexible are generally made of amorphous silicon (aSi), but there are other foldable varieties that are made of copper, indium, gallium, di-selenide compounds (CIGS). uni-solar makes laminates that are intended for installation in the seams of a standing seam metal roof. people have been known to use them for other things, but to the best of my knowledge the are not listed for other applications. they have a crazy adhesive on the back which limits their cross utilization.
hope that helps
james
altestore.com staff
Is there a particular reason you need thin film? We had a flexible thin film panel on our roof, but it wore out after a couple years. I don’t think they’re made to take stress.
Conventional crystalline or thin-film (such as Evergreen) panels are fairly tough, and in fact, in large, flat corporate installations, a guy goes up there every few weeks with a mop to clean the panels, and actually walks on them. However, I’m sure that even those weren’t designed with the idea of people walking on them regularly.
You could probably put a plate of tempered glass over your panels, the kind used for flooring, but at a severe sacrifice of energy. Ordinary window glass sacrifices 20% of the energy coming in, so solar panels use a special low-iron glass.
One thing about photovoltaic panels is that if a small shadow is cast on them, the power drops dramatically, far more than the area of the shadow. The shadow of your arm over a panel that is 12 square feet can drop the output to 10% of peak. Knowing that, I would give up on expecting to harvest electricity while people were walking on the panels, so would just put plywood over them when it was time for people to walk, then take the plywood off when it was time to generate electricity. You’ll also want to put the panels where they will be clear of shadows of any antennas, rigging, masts, fishing poles, etc.
OK, I expect you know that there are several different kinds of solar panels. I have been living on solar power for more than a decade and using thin film panels. They are made by a company called Uni Solar, with which I have no association of any kind. The demo the dealer gives to prove how tough they are is this…he drives golf balls into the panels!
So I have no doubt that you can definitely walk on them. They also make a flexible unit which is commonly used on boats. That way the panel can easily conform to a typical boat roof, which is normally curved.
You can track down Uni Solar on the web. Or if you are interested in finding out more about panels and all things solar, you could look up Homepower Magazine on the web.
There are some places working with this in research and development.It would be a very large market if someone had an industrial set up so that like tarp sheets they could be rolled out and collect energy and then storing the energy in large capacitor similar to the size of a small water heater.Similar to a solar paint using a method to collect energy for storage or on demand energy systems.Type in search: solar energy systems on google.
scale and implementation may be problematic