Flexible Glass Could Make Tablets Lighter and Solar Power Cheaper
NREL shows that Corning’s Willow glass can be used to make flexible solar cells that could be installed in place of roofing shingles.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516471/flexible-glass-could-make-tablets-lighter-and-solar-power-cheaper/
Not quite ready for prime time, but interesting to me because I have read about solar shingles for years but have yet to see them in any sort of mainstream applications. I am not sure how they would work in practical reality, when I do roofing I walk all over the shingles I have just laid (and I have yet to work on anything more steep than 4 in 12, much steeper and you need to nail in supports to keep you from sliding off the roof) and those shingles are very rough and therefor keep me from slipping. I have to imagine that glass covered shingles would be incredibly slick and difficult to walk on (if you have to avoid walking on them it makes shingling really a challenge!). However, if they manage to solve all those issues and can drop the price to where it is competitive with regular roofing I can see this becoming something significant quite easily and rapidly. However, as I have said, I have been hearing about this sort of concept for well over a decade with little to show for it.
