Art meets Engineering

I can't stop admiring the Silicon Energy panels! I was so enamored with them that I asked if there was a way to get a demo sample so I could put it in people's hands; it seemed a shame to mount them so far off the ground so no one could actually touch them.

Rebecca made some calls got us a demo panel, hand delivered by the president of Silicon Energy when he was visiting their soon to open production facility in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. In my world, this makes Minnesota one great place to live!

I always thought PV panels had a distinct "industrial vibe" about them. Often framed in metal, all though high as cool, magical inventions, they lacked a certain...panache, a je ne sais quois about them. I imagined we'd have tolerable, but rather "practical" panels. These Silicon Energy panels are incredible: beautiful, solid and elegant.

These are all tempered glass with fused edges:

From what I understand, other all-glass panels are two layers with a sealant bead around the edge. Eventually, as the seal ages, eventually moisture gets in, fogging it up and diminishing the production of the panel. These beautiful creatures, with their fused edges keep moisture out and class in. Look at how beautiful the _undersides_ of the panels are:

There is nothing to hide here! no little wires or ugliness. Beautiful engineering. If all engineering was this beautiful the world would be such a better place. The magical silicon crystals are also mesmerizing on the top.




Of course, what's good engineering without a little science geek humor? Priceless.

 

Remind me again why were are spending so much money and polluting so much  of our one and only Earth with stupid, ugly engineering like tar sands and coal mining? And why do we keep hoping for cold fusion to actually become EROI positive? If anything, these panels are the best argument that the time for solar is now, and it can be beautiful.