Optimized Photovoltaic Systems for Commercial Rooftops

Commercial rooftops represent a vast and underutilized resource for the generation of solar electricity.

There are approximately 11 billion square meters of commercial rooftop surface available worldwide. Tapping even a small fraction of this potential would make a significant impact on the world’s energy needs.

Solyndra designs, manufactures and sells solar photovoltaic (PV) systems comprised of panels and mounting hardware for large, low-slope commercial rooftops. The Solyndra system is designed to enhance PV performance on commercial rooftops by converting more of the sunlight that strikes the total rooftop area into electricity.

Solyndra's panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. Solyndra's panels achieve effective energy generation when mounted horizontally and spaced significantly closer together than conventional panels on a typical rooftop, thereby enabling greater rooftop coverage and enhanced energy production over the system’s lifetime.

The Solyndra system is lightweight and allows modules to be spaced apart within the panels so that wind can blow through them, thus eliminating the need for expensive mounting hardware and ballast typically required to secure conventional panels against uplift from the wind. The horizontal mounting and unique "air-flow" properties of Solyndra's solar panel design substantially simplify the installation process for Solyndra's PV systems. The ease of installation and simpler mounting hardware of the Solyndra system enables its customers to significantly reduce labor, hardware, design and other balance of systems costs, which account for a substantial portion of the total installed cost of a conventional PV system.

Using proprietary cylindrical CIGS modules and thin-film technology, Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest cost of electricity on commercial rooftops by delivering the lowest total systems costs per watt and the highest kilowatt hour production per rooftop for typical installations.