Solar energy for households is an interesting concept one that has been pretty much a one trick pony for the most part. Namely centered around photovoltaic panels and that was pretty much all that came out of the solar energy for the homes. Well that and solar heated water heaters.
The solar curtains could possibly the future of housing … but it’s a bit of an odd move considering curtains while near windows don’t really catch all the sunlight considering their inside the house. That sort of makes the image above that showcases the design a bit odd, I mean curtains outside. While the idea of embedding flexible solar panel particles inside of the curtains is a great idea. I mean if we’re going to be blocking light from the inside of the house we might as well take advantage of the light that’s being blocked. But to be completely honest I only really see this as being fully utilized when the nano-photovoltaic transparent window panes are ready and we can have the windows and the curtains all sucking in that good ol’ sunlight energy.
Soon enough every inch of our houses will be able to be photovoltaic, Curtains, Window Panes, Theirs Photovoltaic paint in the works for the outdoor walls, then theirs also the roll-able and shingle based photovoltaic panels for the roof. But at the what seems like the rate of a slow tectonic drift it will probably be a very long time until we see all of these technologies culminating on joe-shmoes house and not just the uber rich and researchers houses, I wonder when a trip including some Chicago travel plans will include driving past 100% energy efficient houses. Seems like that would indeed cover 100% of the house with some form of photovoltaic absorption can you say “off the grid”?
Source: Inhabitat
