PHOTOS: Next-gen solar tech at Intersolar
Wander for a few minutes around the trade show floors at Intersolar, one of the largest solar conferences in the U.S., being held in San Francisco at Moscone Center this week, and it’s easy to get a little bored. The rooms are full of racking systems, inverters, silicon materials, and more than anything else, lots of solar panels that all look alike.
But spend a bit more time talking to the company execs and comparing the products, and it becomes clear: that’s kind of the point. The solar industry is working hard on reducing costs and that means turning to pretty boring stuff like precision manufacturing, new semiconductor material combinations, and even easier-to-use screws for mounting systems (OK, not boring if you’re an engineer).
But despite that these industrial and manufacturing technologies are dominating solar innovation, there were still some eye-catching next-gen solar technologies on display at the event, and I snapped these 25 pics to share ‘em with y’alls:
Loving solar a little too much
Solar robots
Solar robots
Solar panel cleaner
Solar log
Solar as remote power
Solar panel mounting system
Solar tracking system
Solar tracking system
Solar keg
Solar iPod apps
SolFocus
Solar pool heating system
Solar thermal
SolarOr
Amonix
More solar tubes
More solar tubes
More solar tubes
Solar materials
Solar power tower
Solar trough tech
It's an American right to have solar
Suntech's new tech
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Solar “tubes” for solar hot water predate Solyndra by years. The author’s comments about Solyndra’s patents in relationship to evacuated tubes for solar hot water systems are bizarre, as they have absolutely no relation to Solyndra’s technology. One is for solar hot water generation. The other is for electrical production. The “tube” format can’t be patentable across all forms of energy generation using the sun, as you prior art demonstration is well documented.