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Concept
Solyndra
Summary
Solyndra was a manufacturer of cylindrical panels of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells based in Fremont, California. Heavily promoted as a leader in the sustainable energy sector for its unusual technology, Solyndra was not able to compete with conventional solar panel manufacturers of crystalline silicon. In 2009, the Obama administration co-signed $535 million loans to Solyndra.
The company filed for bankruptcy on September 1, 2011.
Solyndra designed, manufactured, and sold solar photovoltaic (PV) systems composed of panels and mounting hardware for large, low-slope commercial rooftops. The panels perform optimally when mounted horizontally and packed closely together, the company claimed, covering significantly more of the typically available roof area and producing more electricity per rooftop on an annual basis than a conventional panel installation.
The company's panels were claimed to be unlike any other product ever tried in the industry: they were made of racks of cylindrical tubes (also called tubular solar panels), not traditional flat panels. Solyndra rolled its CIGS thin films into a cylindrical shape and placed 40 of them in each panel. Solyndra designers thought the cylindrical solar panels absorbed energy from any direction (direct, indirect, and reflected light).
Each Solyndra cylinder, one inch in diameter, is made up of two tubes. The company used equipment it had developed to deposit CIGS on the outside of the inner tube, which includes up to 200 CIGS cells. On top of the CIGS material, it added an "optical coupling agent", which concentrates the sunlight that shines through the outer tube. After inserting the inner tube into the outer tube, each cylinder is filled with a silicone oil, then sealed with glass and metal to exclude moisture, which erodes CIGS's performance. The hermetic sealing technology is commonly used in fluorescent lamps.
When combined with a white roof, the company claimed that systems that employ the panels on a given rooftop could produce significantly more electricity in a given year.
Official source
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