The photo is sourced from electrek.co
The power of one plant is enough for off-grid power supply of a one-story country house for four to five people. The innovation has already worked in earthquake-affected areas, including Turkey and in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. Barrel also extends to a number of African countries (Senegal, Morocco, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria) and the Middle East (Oman, United Arab Emirates).
Barrel’s development is the latest in a series of solar energy innovations designed for off-grid power supply. Earlier, the German Autarq created tiles with built-in single-crystal elements. The innovation looks like an ordinary roof designed for 25 years of operation at the temperatures from minus 40 to plus 85 degrees Celsius, and it is able to withstand loads up to 5,400 Pascal (which is enough for snow cover). One square metre of the coverage consists of 12 tiles with 10 W power capacity each. Accordingly, fifty square meters of tiles can provide the same solar output as a Barrel plant.
Another example is the upgraded Grätzel cells used by the Swedish company Exeger in the production of wireless devices. Like regular Grätzel cells, Exeger’s flexible solar wafers consist of five main elements: a glass anode; a mesoporous titanium dioxide layer that generates electrons when interacting with light; a layer of dye absorbed by the anode, due to which the latter acquires photo-sensitivity; an electrolyte that conducts electricity; cathode made of a layer of platinum deposited on glass to collect electrons. However, if in standard Grätzel cells the anode is covered with a layer of tin oxide, in the Exeger’s development, the Powerfoyle is used – a special conductive electrode material simplifying the introduction of cells in headphones and television remote controls.
