Aero friendly flexible Unisolar panels are now getting affordable
 

Just thought someone may be interested in these for an battery charging project as they are now getting a lot cheaper.

Available on ebay for about $ 1.00 a watt. They used to be a lot more when they were last mentioned here on Ecomodder. They are US made but I think the company ran into financial problems.

The Airstream and Fiberglass RV people have figured out how to cut and rewire the panels if you need 'em shorter.
Anyone have experience with unisolar flexible pv - Page 2 - Airstream Forums

Edit :also available here for $1.00 per watt complete with cables.
http://www.sunelec.com/unisolar-lami...mp-p-1805.html

I see a market for solar car covers. Sew them into sheets to throw over your car in the summer sun. Not only will it cool your car by shade, it could power cooling ventilation. Also would save your paint, and give you some environmental street cred.

Great for EV's or hybrids to trickle charge their packs when left parked for extended periods.

That would be really cool since I now park outside all day every day. But the power is confusing... when they list XX watts, what time span is that in? It will put out XX watts in one hour (watt hour)? One day?

confusing
 

between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM under clear sky,if pointed into the Sun,you might expect the panel to produce that much power.
If at 12-volts,you'd divide the power by 12,and that would give you your charging current in amps.

Watts is power, in the case of solar cells that's amps X volts. 746 watts is 1 hp. Time doesn't come into it.
If you have a 100 watt light bulb it needs 100 watts for as long as you have it turned on.
The watts listed for solar cells is generally the power available in full sun (noon in the summer). So if you imagine that around lunch time you have about an hour of full sun you can have XX watt-hours. Watt-hours is work or energy. Of course during the day the amount of sunlight varies, so over a full day (24 hours) you could get the equivalent of 4 to 6 hours of full sun, if the solar cells always face the sun. If you stored the electrical energy from solar cells (rated at 100 watts) sitting in the sun all day, then at night you'd have enough to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 to 6 hours.
-mort

We have some Unisolor panels, they were they only solar panels that I've ever seen fail, they also had the shortest warranty I've seen on solar.

The power output is under standard test conditions, you can look it up, but you can also look up "Sun Hours" and that is more or less the amount of sun per day on average that you will get to give you a rated output, where I live we average around 4 sun hours per day for a year round average, so if I have a 100 watt panel I should average around 400 watt hours per day from it, this is assuming that IT IS POINTING AT THE SUN, the sun is not straight up, where I am it is at a 45 degree angle right now (spring) and will rise to be at a 60 degree angle at the peek of summer and get down to 30 degrees on the first day of winter, unless I lived on the equator it will never be at 90 degrees (straight up) so having a solar panel flat will both reduce the effective collection area and will increase the reflective qualities of the glass or plastic coating on the PV panel so at best you will get 3/4 of the output at mid day from a panel that is pointing straight up, but more likely is that the output will be reduced to 50% and even less in the winter.

Thanks guys. Still confusing, but less so. :)

I would not expect any warranty since the company is now out of business.
Flat roof performance is here
http://www.flexenergydelsol.com/wp-c...-roof-data.pdf

There is plenty of room on the roof of the suburban for a few of those.

A while back I figured that if I covered the roof of my electric car with mono-crystal panels (higher output per sf) that I could add about a mile of range per day to my battery pack, about 250 watt hours, that should be enough to run day time running lights, ECU, vent fan and everything else for about an hour per day I would think.

My argument of course has always been that PV panels should outlast the vehicle (25 year warranty is standard) Uni-solar... before they went bankrupt had a 25 year warranty, but they also had some of the highest failure rates with a lot of their panels not even lasting 10 years, but assuming that the PV panel lasts 25 year and the average car lasts 8 years why would you put PV panels on the car where they have a reduced output because they are not pointed at the sun, they are at a greater risk of damage, add weight to the vehicle and are more likely to be shaded by trees or buildings.
Put your solar panels on your garage or house where they can point at the sun, get the least shade and just plug your car in when you are home.