MakeHeat

Used more for new construction, Building Integrated PhotoVolaics (BIPV) is slowly gaining ground.  Rather than poking a panel on a pole and sticking it in the dirt where there’s no shade, or racks of panels on the roof, BIPV integrates solar electric, energy efficient design and archetecture:

“…Whenever you approach an industry from a different perspective, that’s when you produce very interesting products, said JD Albert of SRS Energy.  SRS produces curved roofing tiles made of PV that are designed to fit into the mission-style architecture of the southwestern region of the U.S.  Curved red clay roof tiles there are modeled after the Mediterranean roof styles found in Spain and elsewhere. …”

BIPV Market Gaining Traction | Renewable Energy World.

Photo Credit: seeks2dream

Nature has been doing it for millenia – we just need to ask (her) how it’s done.  Dyesol, a fast growing company in the DSC (Dye-Sensitized solar Cells) sector, has been teasing out the secrets and putting them to use on steel, glass fabric and more. 

  An Isreali inventor named Jonathan Goldstein, while looking for a way to make toothpaste flow more easily, came across a simple solution to making solar cells. “…He envisions maintaining a plant, and R&D facility in Israel, as well as licensing the technology to countries that will be using the panels. “The manufacturing plants can be put in anywhere because all you need is a screen-printing machine and some sort of oven,” he explains. ”

Look for silicon based DSC this year.

Inspired By Photosynthesis: Dye Solar Cell (DSC) Solar Panels.

See also: Israel21c.org

[ed.] Hmmm.  So if I use some of that toothpaste that’s white, and some food coloring, and the oven when my wife’s out shopping…

As only Time can tell, these are the technologies that are up and coming, green, and very much in the government subsidy/big business end of the spectrum.  Any one working on a home DIY fusion generator?  

1. Concentrated Solar Power – Alternative Energy – TIME.