Solar panels for roofs, balconies, lawns all exist.
But why hasn’t solar panel blinds and curtains taken off?
To me it seems really good for people who live in apartments and want to get more juice from the windows.
You must log in or register to comment.
Flexible conductors are very expensive (source: worked in automation). If you use cheap ones they’ll fail and either the panels won’t make power, and/or you’ll have an exposed shock hazard.
Besides, we have way more walls than windows. Fixed panels make way more sense.
A solar panel that occasionally blocks a window would be completely useless the other part of the time.
A window permanently blocked by a solar panel is better known as a wall with a solar panel on it.
A vertical wall with a solar panel will not be as effective as one angled towards the sun, such as one on a roof might be.
Some reasons:
We don’t (yet) have flexible panels that would survive the abuse that curtains experience.
Vertical surfaces are not nearly as effective for the majority of cases in capturing solar radiation.
Windows have lots of obstructions that reduce the effectiveness of a solar panel.
Putting solar panels behind an extra layer of glass that would need to be kept pristine would be counter productive.
The voltages involved in solar panels would create an added source of danger inside the house.
