Could You Soon Make Photocopies With Solar Panels?

For years Xerox was a company synonymous with making photocopies of documents using paper. However, the times, they are a changin’, like Bob Dylan once sang, and today Xerox-affiliated researchers are looking to help expand their business with something else… copied solar panels.

Could there be a machine that copies solar panels? It is possible. Xerox’s idea is to develop a new digital printing process to make it cheaper to mass produce “solar photovoltaic systems,” aka solar panels. Just like a lot of things, these items could be smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than what’s currently on the market today. Think about how phones used to be bigger and bulkier, as well as computers. Now imagine the solar panels you see on rooftops– they’re generally pretty large, aren’t they? What if a company like Xerox could design and make smaller ones that do a great job for people?

How can Xerox-affiliated researchers make this technology a reality? They’re developing a new kind of printer which can deposit tiny semiconductor chips on a flat panel. So, instead of depositing ink, like most printers and copiers do, this new version would be able to assemble together electrical and optical components, thus making improved solar panels on a mass scale.

Strides have been made by engineers to shrink components needed that concentrate and focus sunlight down to the millimeter scale. In a few years, it’s possible that precision-made solar panels will be able to be made like the way we photocopy documents today.

Since this technology isn’t quite ready just yet, you have the option of utilizing today’s solar panels on top of your roof to harness the sun for power. Solar Solutions Inc. is one of the most experienced solar power companies in Texas and New Mexico. If you’d like solar electric and solar pool heating systems designed and installed for your place, call 915-581-0461.