Policy / Systems / Technology

March 4, 2013

 

Japanese Researchers Develop World's First Solar Cell Textile

Keywords: Environmental Technology Renewable Energy University / Research institute 

The Industrial Technology Center of Fukui Prefecture announced on November 29, 2012, that it has developed the technology to manufacture a thread composed of spherical solar cells, and successfully built a prototype of the world's first energy-generating textile interwoven with the threads. The work was done in cooperation with local companies and Sphelar Power Corp., a Japan-based solar cell manufacturer, purchaser, and distributor.

The prototype of the solar cell textile is interwoven with woofs -- in which spherical solar cells 1.2 millimeters (mm) in diameter are arrayed and connected as a thread -- and warps (woof is the transverse thread, warp is lengthwise or longitudinal thread). The textile is thin (1.4 mm thick) and can generate power even when it is folded or bent.

The textile integrates the features of spherical solar cells, which have a wide light-receiving angle and a light permeability, as well as those of textiles, which are light, flexible, and stretchable; the company expects to find various uses for it that have been impossible to match with conventional solar cells.

This project was selected as a commissioned project by a government support program for strategic basic technology advancement in fiscal 2012, and has conducted studies to commercialize the solar cell textile for applications, such as for use in building envelopes and roofs by FY2015.

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