Solar technology joins the ivy league with novel PV concept: The first project using a potentially revolutionary new building-integrated solar-power concept designed to mimic the appearance of ivy leaves is on track for switch-on at the University of Utah this autumn.
Developed by New York-based Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology (Smit), the Solar Ivy technology, which is made up of bespoke PV panel “leaves” wired through an inverter into a grid-connected system, will be used to construct a 74-square-metre installation with a nameplate capacity of 3.5kW. The $42,000 pilot, now in the schematic design phase, stemmed from the university’s Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund, a student-led scheme to finance campus projects that have a positive environmental impact and help educate the student body in developing “earth-conscious” habits.
“We have developed Solar Ivy to have a range of customisable attributes that we can use to tune the system for the location of the install or in terms of the environmental constraints — shading or other obstacles that might affect the light,” states Smit chief executive Samuel Cochran. “But we can also tailor it to use different types of PV to make the most of the quality of light the system will be converting into electricity.”
The Solar Ivy concept has been devised to be “technology agnostic”, meaning it can be fashioned around organic, amorphous silicon or copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) PV, generating up to four watts per leaf. For the University of Utah project, CIGS was chosen as having the highest power density, with an expected efficiency of better than 10%.
“For our purposes [at the university], we have opted for CIGS, but the system is designed so that we can adapt it to new PV technologies as they become available,” notes Cochran. “We are really excited about the ongoing development of organic PV, for instance, in terms of its smaller carbon footprint, and some of the transparent and printed PV technologies that are under development.”
The leaf structure of Solar Ivy is made of UV-stable plastics, meaning the foliage can be fabricated in any colour or opacity, although they cannot “yet” change with the season. Smit has developed a proprietary three-dimensional software package to go with the Solar Ivy that can model a spectrum of environmental and design variables to determine “how a Solar Ivy system would react to sunlight at a given location”, switching out different types of PV panels to optimise an installation’s output.
“This software allows us to...understand how much solar radiation will be hitting each one of the Solar Ivy leaves,” says Cochran. “And this allows us to adjust the angle and density of leaves making up an installation.” The software feeds final project-specific design details to the manufacturers contracted by Smit to fabricate the Solar Ivy. The company has a number of “established” relationships with suppliers but declines to name the companies until the first installation is up and running.
The installation technology under the Solar Ivy leaves is ingenious in its own right. Smit is employing a flexible, “fishnet-like” stainless steel mesh that attaches to an assembly of perimeter cables and mounting anchors that are fixed to the wall of a building. The mesh can also be worked into self-supporting tensile architectural forms — saddle shapes, tents or the like — with Smit’s software then applying its efficiency-optimising modelling equations to tune and orientate the Solar Ivy leaves in line with these curved surfaces. “This allows us to build nonplanar [non-flat] base structures on which we can populate the leaves at optimal angles to get the maximum exposure to the Sun,” says Cochran.
Once fabricated, a Solar Ivy installation can be collapsed to fit into a shipping container for transport to site, then expanded and installed. For new buildings, the array could be integrated into the architectural design, with allowance made for anchor points, whereas for an existing building — such as at the University of Utah where installation is expected to take “at most a week” — metal brackets can be driven into the exterior walls to support the mesh structure “out of the box”.
An accelerated life-cycle testing programme is under way at the University of Sheffield in the UK to flesh out the operational longevity of the Solar Ivy concept. Smit currently offers a warranty that matches that of the panel-makers supplying the PV leaves, with all componentry manufactured to US military specifications. “As the guarantees of our suppliers improve we’ll be able to pass those along to our customers,” notes Cochran.
Servicing of the Solar Ivy is expected to be “minimal”. Smit is exploring a range of encapsulations and water-repelling coatings to reduce maintenance further. “An occasional rinse if you are in a dusty environment would do it — nothing a window washer couldn’t do,” says Cochran. Given the extreme weather common in Utah’s summers and winters, the coming installation is forecast to be a “thorough” test of the technology’s robustness.
Beyond a number of project proposals pending at different locations in the US, Smit is also pursuing developments in India and Europe, after the recent closing of a breakthrough round of venture-capital investment. International roll-out of Solar Ivy is planned for “the next few years”.
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1 comment:
I'll have to contact the University and see if I can get the job of cleaning these panels! Go Utes!!!!
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