Solar Cloth So Fucking Cool

Everything on the fossil fuel side is a stinking, rotting, disease-spreading corpse. Everything on the renewable energy side is cool.

Katie Valentine at Think Progress:

A British start-up has developed a way for parking lots and structures with roofs that can’t take much weight to harness the power of the sun.

The Cambridge, England-based Solar Cloth Company is beginning to run trials of its solar cloth, which uses lightweight photovoltaic fabric that can be stretched across parking lots or on buildings that can’t hold heavy loads, such as sports stadiums with lightweight, retractable roofs. Perry Carroll, Solar Cloth Company’s founder, told BusinessGreen that the company is working to close deals to install solar cloth on 27,000 parking lots.

“We have built a growing sales pipeline worth £4.2m [about $6.57 million] for 2015, including park and ride projects, airport parking operators and retail park owners,” he said.

SNIP

“One of the main hindrances to solar panel adoption is that they can be difficult to install and integrate with existing architecture functionally and aesthetically,” said Hans Haenlein, adviser to The Solar Cloth Company. “Flexible solar cloth overcomes all of these problems and can add real value to existing and upcoming sites.”

SNIP

Solar is also starting to show up in new places, moving away from the traditional rooftop model. This week, the Netherlands unveiled the world’s first solar bike lane, a project that’s only predicted to create enough energy to power two or three homes but which, if this first test is successful, could be scaled up in the future. One couple also wants to make solar roads a reality in the U.S., replacing asphalt with hexagonal solar panels covered by protective glass.