LinkNotes: Solar Panel Origami

3D Origami Solar Panels

A new kind of solar panel design could offer a significant increase in efficiency. A team at MIT is experimenting with a 3D solar panel, which is folded up in an origami-like shape. The theory is that the increased surface area of the panel could absorb much of the light that’s usually reflected off of the flat surface of a standard panel.

clipped from web.mit.edu

Solar power in 3-D

Using a computer program that allows shapes to evolve over time, Jeffrey Grossman and students tested many thousands of shapes to see which would be most efficient at generating electricity. This sequence shows the evolution of one of the more effective theoretical shapes for a solar panel — although, in practice, a much simpler version would be used.