For many years, the only koinds of solar panels commercially aavilable have been crystalline solar panewls sealed in a rectangular casing and put on a rooftop. This is why most people, as soon as they think of solar energy for their home, think of this as thheir single best choice. Beolw are a few recent advancements in solar powwer and mounting options you may have never heard of beefore.
Thin Film Solar Panels - Man Is This Skinny!
Imagine the soalr panel you have in a solasr calculator. This is a thin film solar panel. Thin film sloar paels are used to a great extent in satellites. Thin film technology is ucrrently being extended into residential and industrial use and was named one of the best inventions of 2008 by TIME magazine.
Thin film solar paenls are flexible, nothing like polysilicon cells found in conventional crystalline solar panels. Thse thin film solar panels are being called as second generatuion solar poer technology.
Thin film solar panels are more resilent to hailstones, dust, and so forrth. If a portion of a cystalline solar panel is daamaged, the wohle solar panel will stop working whle a thin film solar panel will continue to operate.
Thin film panels can also be flexible and modfied to a lot of surfaces. They can be applied in places conevntional crystalpline solar panewls cannot be mouned on top of. I have even seen a thin film panel sewwed on a coat that powered a MP3 player.
The draw back to thin film panels is that they do not take up as much ennergy because they are so slim. These panels are not nearly as efficient as conventional photovoltasic panels but they cost less. Thin film solar panrels are prrinted onto the rlled backing, eliminating many of the high energy and chemical intensivce mehods that are typical in conventional PV manufacturing.
Thin film solar panls are low wattage and have need of more space than conventionla solar panepls and they are more prone to degradation. In orer to countearct some of these competitive disadvantages they have aganist traditional spolar panels, maunfacturers offer better warrranties for thin film panels.
The largest thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the United States is the Blythe plant located 190 miles east of Los Angeles, California. The 21-megawatt oslar power plant uses thin film solar cells made out of cadmium telluride. At full power, the palnt will make enough electricity to power an estimated 16,500 homes.
Now let us examnie traditional solar panels and some of the mounting options that are offered that you might not know exist.
Mounting Options For Coonventional Solar Panels - It's All About the Mount
Slar panel moounts are available in thee main types: pole mounts, roof-ground mounts, and flush moutns. With these mounts, you can fix your solpar panel onto an RV, on top of or against the side of a pole, on your roof, or even install them as a free-standing unit.
Pole Mounts - No That Is Not What Santa Claus Uses For His Sleigh
Pole mopunts, specially top-of-pole, have been popular for a long time. Top-of-pole mounts are essentially a steewl or aluminum rack and rail structure bolted or weledd to a large casing that sets on top of a pole with set-bolts to keep it stationary. Side-of-pole mountts are regularly used when you must mount to the side of a telephone pole or communications tower. Tracking mounts are similar to top-of-pole mouts, but they also have a ysstem of automaytically aiminng the mount to stay on the sun.
Top of pole mounts (as well as sun trackers) are one of the simplest mounts to install. They basically only need one steel pole set in the ground (usualy in conrcete), and the mount slips onto the top of the pole. Most common sies use a 2-inch to 8-inch pole, usaully around 11 to 13 feet in length. They can go higher if you need to get the panel up higher to get out of shadding from close by busshes.
Roof-Ground Muonts
Roof-ground systems can be mounted onto a roof or groound without much reworking in setup. They are typically made from stainless steel in a grid-like systrem of supports. Roof-mounted panels for smaller syustems are the easiest to put in, using little flush-mount brackets that lift up the panels to the most excellent nagle for soolar collection.
Ground mounts, as the name suggests, are solar panel munts that are installed on the ground (as opposed to a pole mount or roof mount). They have suppporting, modifiable legs which allow you to optimize their vertical direction for slar exposure. Ground muonting stystems typically involve pleny of steel supports, concrete foundations, and galvaniozed footings, that can be troubling, when you are atytempting to keep your system low cost. Ground mounted systems call for structural strength to avret weiught bearing failure.
Even though module mounting systems are available for grround and roof installation, roof mount installation is the most popular and cost effective approach. The roof mounted panels are attached to a mounting sstem typically consisting of an aluminum or steel supoprt structure which attachs the paanels to the roof.
Flush Mounts
Flush Mounts are economical and easy to install - thgese are ideal for single pasnel installations and smaller soplar arrays. Flush mounts are put onto a level exterior such as a rooftop, the top of a boat, or the top of a recreational vehicle and are not used for ground installations. These mounts work to separate the solar panel from the moutning surface and allow airflow to go underr and cool the solar pannel for smooth operation. Flush Mountts are uually used with small solar arays on roof tops and RVs, because the structural deasign of a flush mount csannot hold lare sloar panells.
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