Written by Davey Newlove
Since starting my solar career atSolar Plus a little over two years ago, I have gotten a crash course education on the inner workings of the solar energy industry. At times it can be difficult to keep up as new products and innovation has kept the industry growing at rapid speeds. Advancements in solar energy technology have increased the efficiency of solar panels, making them much more powerful than a decade ago. New products in solar are helping businesses and corporations achieve their moonshot goals of becoming 100% carbon neutral. Come take a look at new products that are changing the way we generate power in Georgia.
SOLAR GLASS
There is a new technology called transparent photovoltaic (PV) glass. Onyx Solar is the world’s leading manufacturer of this technology. This glass can be installed in buildings and will harness the power of the sun to generate electricity without having to install the traditional solar panels on the building. According to Onyx,
“The panels are made of layers of heat-treated safety glass which can provide the same thermal and sound insulation as conventional architectural glass.” Since this glass acts as a thermal barrier, it will block incoming heat, but is also transparent, so it will still let natural sunlight flow through them the same way as conventional glass.”
What makes solar glass so appealing is that it doesn’t create any unaesthetic appearances on buildings. These transparent solar panels can be deployed in a wide variety of ways, ranging in use case to skyscrapers with large windows, homes or mobile devices such as laptops, to smartphones or e-readers. This technology holds the potential to turn every home and building into a power producer.
Solar glass technology is so exciting because it has changed the way that we harness light from the sun and convert it into electricity. According to Solar Magazine,
“The cell selectively harnesses a portion of the solar spectrum that is invisible to the naked eye, while allowing the normal visible light to pass through. To achieve this technological wonder, the researchers have developed the transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) rather than trying to do the impossible by creating a transparent photovoltaic glass cell.”
This technology is a game changer for the solar energy industry and I expect it to be deployed on a much higher level in the near future.
EV CHARGING SINGLE PHASE INVERTER
SolarEdge has invented the world’s first ever 2-in-1 EV charger and solar inverter. This new inverter allows homeowners to charge electric vehicles up to six times faster than the standard Level 1 charger. The inverter features a solar boost mode that utilizes grid and PV charging simultaneously. According to SolarEdge,
“Reducing the hassle of installing separately a standalone EV charger and a PV inverter, the EV charging inverter eliminates the need for additional wiring, conduit and a breaker installation.”
This product is designed to work specifically with SolarEdge power optimizers and offers recording breaking 99% efficiency and high reliability. Using this product, homeowners can set charging schedules, control vehicle charging and track their charging status. SolarEdge is marching into the future with their solar/ev charging innovation.
BIFACIAL SOLAR PANELS
If you are looking to install a ground mount solar array, you may want to look into bifacial solar panels. As the name suggests, the solar panels can produce power from both sides of the panel, increasing the total energy generation from that panel. When bifacial modules are installed on a highly reflective surface, they can produce up to 30% more energy. There are a few different styles of bifacial panels which gives customers different options to fit their specific needs. Bifacial solar panels are thin and often resemble thin-film panels and are frequently frameless.
In order to produce the most energy from bifacial solar panels, the hardware used to design a solar array using this technology must minimize shading. This design will help cut down balance of system costs, or as it’s known in the solar industry, BOS. The new technology results in the panels producing more power while also reducing costs. The top portion of the bifacial solar panel generates power the same way as a conventional solar panel while the bottom portion captures light that is reflected off the ground. To ensure the highest efficiency from these types of systems, installing over a white or silver painted roof or concrete driveway is a great idea, but ultimately any highly reflective surface works well too. Now that bifacial solar panels are more cost competitive to traditional solar panels, they can be seen with more frequency by delivering higher efficiency with less racking materials.
DRONES
The use of drones in the commercial industry is being widely adopted, and the solar energy industry is no exception to that. Before the coronavirus lockdown, drones were being widely used to inspect solar farms and large scale commercial installations. Now, amid the pandemic,they are being widely used for zero contact home inspections for residential customers as well. According to Measure, one of the top drone companies in the solar industry,
“Drones support business efforts to avoid hazardous man-hours; reduce costs for maintenance, inspections, and repairs; and maximize energy production.”
Inspections of solar farms can take a lot of man-hours as these farms have hundreds, if not thousands, of panels. Using drone technology can greatly cut down on the amount of time spent inspecting. Using infrared technology, these drones can find the panel that is not operating properly by utilizing thermal imaging to determine which panels are not generating power. The drone will then send the GPS coordinates of the panel that is out to the operator’s phone so that the technician can easily fix the outage.
In the residential sector, drones can be easily used to calculate a customer’s roof dimensions without requiring a technician to climb up a ladder on to the roof. The drone makes it easier and safer for work crews to get home inspections done for their customers. Drones can also be used to inspect outages on customer’s roofs without having to be on the roof. The aerial view of the roof from the drone makes it so much easier for the technician to work more safely, which is very important to us at Solar Plus. Drones are quickly changing the way the solar energy industry operates.
All of these new technologies are helping the solar energy industry grow to new heights. With innovation and advancements in research, there seem to be few limits to what can be achieved with solar energy technology.
If you feel that installing a solar power system is right for you, contact Solar Plus to set up a quote estimate today!