If you are a regular CleanTechnica reader, you’ve noticed that we’ve gone through a major site redesign in the last week or so. As time moves one, innovation and better design is a natural (for things people care about). People clearly care a lot about solar power and I think one sort-of-new innovation — flexible solar panels — is something worth cheering about.
I’ve seen plenty of news on flexible solar panels before, but the latest from a leading flexible solar power company is definitely worth a nod.
“SoloPower, a company that makes thin-film solar panels, has broken the mold with durable flexible panels. The company has received the first every UL Certification for their flexible, CIGS modules. SoloPower’s UL certification was a first for the PV solar industry,” as Summer Minor of Green Building Elements writes.
UL stands for Underwriters Laboratories. UL tests product safety internationally, and it’s been doing so since 1894!
This is the first UL-certified product in a line of high-power flexible modules being introduced initially to European and North American markets. The flexibility and high-power rating of these products will allow SoloPower’s customers to reduce balance-of-system and installation costs, while their low weight and application features will facilitate solar installations where they are otherwise impossible.
“The certification of SoloPower’s flexible CIGS module is an important step toward the realization of lightweight, high-power, flexible solar modules with potential to expand the roof-top solar market and reduce balance of system costs. It is an important milestone for the industry. I feel very gratified to see, after a 30-year career in Thin Film CIGS PV at NREL, the technology become mature,” says Dr. Rommel Noufi, Principal Scientist of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Great to see these flexible solar panels moving forward. Before long, perhaps the hard, solid-structured solar panels we are used to will look like old Atari video game consoles to us.
Photo Credit: pt via flickr
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