LinkNotes: Solar Power Textile

Embedding solar cells in textile is a fascinating technological challenge with promising prospects like solar power from clothes, curtains, bags, shelters and more.

Solar Textiles

Clipped from: Solar Textiles: Coming Soon (We Hope) to Clothing Near You : TreeHugger

We think the piezoelectric backpack is a pretty cool concept for generating your own electricity just by walking around, not to mention various other solar bags, but a new development stands to revolutionize the way that we interact with solar power in our everyday lives: solar textiles.

Solar Power Clothing

Clipped from: Smart designed Solar power Clothing - Solar-Tie, University, Carolina, Textile, Apparel, Management, Department, Technology, Digital, Besides - talk2myShirt

A a team at North Carolina State University came up with a brilliant idea how to make use of digital textile printing to incorporate unusual components into a design by printing fabric that matches the pattern of the component.

As an example of how digital textile printing can be used to make the solar panels invisible is the solar jacket and the solar tie.

Clipped from: JTATM - North Carolina State University

APPLICATION OF DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING TECHNOLOGY TO INTEGRATE PHOTOVOLTAIC THIN FILM CELLS INTO WEARABLES

[...]
The solar panels were attached using ‘liquid stitch’ adhesive, which eliminated the concern of accounting for a fastener in the design of the digitally printed pattern. The dot of solder used to connect the circuitry to the solar panels was a close color match to the connection bus adhered to the solar panels and was not visually distracting.
[...]
The tie was tested by a user for performance in a typical business environment. The trial consisted of wear during five business days and storage in a closet. During the trials, there were no safety infringements with respect to electrical shock. A visual inspection of the insulated wire revealed no degradation of the insulation after the trials. The wires maintained their ability to conduct electricity without resistance.

Solar Textile

Clipped from: Research — SOEL

Research

Solar energy and energy efficiency

Clipped from: Solar textile — SOEL
Solar textile
We're developing processes to make fiber solar cells that can be woven into textile. [...]

We're developing processes to make fiber solar cells that can be woven into textile.

Textile Based Solar Cells

Clipped from: Toward textile-based solar cells: SPIE Newsroom: SPIE.org

A fiber-based organic photovoltaic may form the building block of cost- effective, energy-harvesting textiles.

The large yellow square represents an area of land that would need to be covered with 10% efficient solar cells to satisfy the national energy demand. In comparison, the arrow points to a small red square whose relative area represents the worldwide area of solar cells currently manufactured and installed. The area of the fabrics image represents the total square meters of textiles imported to the United States. The bottom right image shows the fiber-based organic solar cell, photographed near a penny for size comparison.