There’s an apocryphal story about the origin of the dimensions of the standard-sized photovoltaic solar panel. The tale goes that the maximum size of a UPS delivery truck’s shelf dictated the dimensions of the original PV panel’s form factor. (If any of our readers can confirm or refute that -- leave a comment below.)
Anyway, the industry standard size is about 62 inches by 32 inches by 2 inches, give or take, for a panel that puts out between 150 and 200 watts. And that’s been the only game in town. Until now.
Applied Materials large-format panel -- the 5.7m2 Gen 8.5 panel -- is fabricated by amorphous silicon suppliers like Signet and Moser Baer. These panels are relatively low efficiency (6 percent to 8 percent) and intended mostly for free-standing large-scale solar farms. (The glass size for these panels is inherited from the glass dimensions used in LCD PVD processing.)
So we have PV panels with sizes dictated by truck shelves and flat screen displays. How about PV panels with shapes and sizes designed for actual rooftops?
Which brings on Armageddon... Energy. A memorable if macabre name for a newly formed solar firm.
Armageddon Energy is amongst the more than 200 solar startups created in the last few years that Greentech Media has listed and categorized.
Armageddon's CEO Mark Goldman explained that there are 100 million homes in the U.S. but only about 60,000 have solar installed. Why such a small percentage? There are a number of reasons -- cost of course, but also difficulty of installation and the intricacies of the permitting process.
Goldman believes that someone will figure out how to deploy residential solar cheaply and attractively enough -- and with materials better suited for the application, to make it massively successful at displacing new power plants, and he sees Armageddon as that someone.
"We take a ton of cost out of the installation by removing a lot of the overhead and labor," said Goldman about Armageddon's consumer-tailored solar panel. The firm's modular and standard product streamlines the permitting process and the reasonably powered and reasonably priced 1-kilowatt system turns installing residential rooftop solar into a process like buying a home appliance instead of "a high-involvement sale."
Goldman claims that Armageddon's uniquely shaped hexagonal module is easier to handle and better accommodates the contours and features of a rooftop. Three of the hexagonals are racked on a triangular support to form a "clover" and three of those clovers provide about a kilowatt of power.
Armageddon claims:
That its affordable systems enables mainstream consumers to buy into solar
That plug-and-play modules allow installers to scale up rapidly
That its standardized smaller, lighter system streamlines the sales process
Its system makes it profitable for installers to do small systems
Armageddon isn't divulging all the details on its system, but it has a unique electrical set-up that dispenses with terror-inducing DC electronics and a housing that eliminates the heavy float glass and metal frame used in most solar panels.
The firm has patents filed and is moving forward with engineering and development. Armageddon is in the midst of raising seed funding for the company (which must be a humbling experience -- lots of competitors and a flinchy investor climate).
A name change might be in order, though.
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There’s an apocryphal story about the origin of the dimensions of the standard-sized photovoltaic solar panel. The tale goes that the maximum size of a UPS delivery truck’s shelf dictated the dimensions of the original PV panel’s form factor. (If any of our readers can confirm or refute that -- leave a comment below.)
Anyway, the industry standard size is about 62 inches by 32 inches by 2 inches, give or take, for a panel that puts out between 150 and 200 watts.
And that’s been the only game in town. Until now.
Applied Materials large-format panel -- the 5.7m2 Gen 8.5 panel -- is fabricated by amorphous silicon suppliers like Signet and Moser Baer. These panels are relatively low efficiency (6 percent to 8 percent) and intended mostly for free-standing large-scale solar farms. (The glass size for these panels is inherited from the glass dimensions used in LCD PVD processing.)
So we have PV panels with sizes dictated by truck shelves and flat screen displays. How about PV panels with shapes and sizes designed for actual rooftops?
Which brings on Armageddon... Energy. A memorable if macabre name for a newly formed solar firm.
Armageddon Energy is amongst the more than 200 solar startups created in the last few years that Greentech Media has listed and categorized.
Armageddon's CEO Mark Goldman explained that there are 100 million homes in the U.S. but only about 60,000 have solar installed. Why such a small percentage? There are a number of reasons -- cost of course, but also difficulty of installation and the intricacies of the permitting process.
Goldman believes that someone will figure out how to deploy residential solar cheaply and attractively enough -- and with materials better suited for the application, to make it massively successful at displacing new power plants, and he sees Armageddon as that someone.
"We take a ton of cost out of the installation by removing a lot of the overhead and labor," said Goldman about Armageddon's consumer-tailored solar panel. The firm's modular and standard product streamlines the permitting process and the reasonably powered and reasonably priced 1-kilowatt system turns installing residential rooftop solar into a process like buying a home appliance instead of "a high-involvement sale."
Goldman claims that Armageddon's uniquely shaped hexagonal module is easie
r to handle and better accommodates the contours and features of a rooftop. Three of the hexagonals are racked on a triangular support to form a "clover" and three of those clovers provide about a kilowatt of power.
Armageddon claims:
Armageddon isn't divulging all the details on its system, but it has a unique electrical set-up that dispenses with terror-inducing DC electronics and a housing that eliminates the heavy float glass and metal frame used in most solar panels.
The firm has patents filed and is moving forward with engineering and development. Armageddon is in the midst of raising seed funding for the company (which must be a humbling experience -- lots of competitors and a flinchy investor climate).
A name change might be in order, though.
