The debate about the best places to put solar panels has raged on for years. Is it rooftops, parking lots, or empty fields outside the city? The overall shape of solar panels has never really changed. Big, flat rectangles stuck onto anything that could hold them up. That is, until now. A new flexible material has reached the market and it’s a game-changer for architecture and renewable energy.
There is a solar panel in the works that isn’t really a panel at all. This is more like a flexible surface. It’s thin and can bend easily. It can be draped over walls, corners, and curves. A team of experts at Cornell looked to biology for the design of this new solar technology.
They took notes from nature’s way of shaping leaves and shells to catch light from every angle. They applied these to this new solar technology, and the results so far are very promising. Solar energy might be heading towards a new chapter. Almost anything becomes a surface that quietly generates power from sunlight thanks to the HelioSkin.
The HelioSkin layers photovoltaic materials inside something that acts more like fabric than a circuit board. It flexes just enough to move with the structure underneath.
