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Theinnovators:portablesolarpanelsthatcanbeunrolledlikeacarpet|Business|TheGuardian

The innovators: portable solar panels that

can be unrolled like a carpet
John Hingley has developed a micro-grid in a metal box that can be used for disaster relief, mining,
and even festivals
Shane Hickey
Sunday 6 March 2016 13.44GMT

Talk is not cheap in the mountains of Nepal. Getting a mobile phone charged can cost $5
in areas where there is no electricity and backpackers have to rely on diesel generators
used by locals to power up.
John Hingley had a solution stued in his rucksack: a thin and lightweight portable solar
panel that unfolded and could generate enough energy to power his phone, camera and
computer. As well as keeping him charged in the mountains, the simple device
commonly used by travellers and outdoor enthusiasts gave him an idea - to make a much
bigger version.
The reason why this worked so well was because of the big surface area that you have
got ... and I started working on ways to scale this sort of concept, he said. Three years
after returning from his world trip, Hingley has developed a large steel container that
contains a long spool of solar panels, all attached together on a strong exible fabric that
can be pulled out into a 50 metre long system in two minutes.
The portable carpet-like solar system, which stores generated energy in batteries in the
steel housing, is expected to be used for disaster relief where power systems have been
knocked out, by armies on the move, and in mining stations located in areas without any
power. The market for o grid energy is huge and growing - 24% of the world is o grid
but everyone needs energy these days, said Hingley.
The system uses copper indium gallium selenide solar cells (CIGS) that are bonded with a
tensile fabric. The strength of the combined material can cope with being rolled in and
out, said Hingley, and it can be in full operation a few minutes after it is deployed. It is
like a microgrid in a box. It has all of the components integrated into it that you need to
run a 24 hour microgrid.
The spool of solar panels is typically pulled out by a vehicle, which takes about two
minutes, but can also be done manually, albeit by a number of people. When ready for
market, after it goes through regulatory checks, Hingleys company Renovagen will make
the solar power systems bespoke, according to what size the buyer wants. The surface it
is placed on does not have to be at, he said.
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An initial prototype had a capacity of 6KW, about twice that of a solar array on a typical
family home. The current generation will have a capacity of up to 18KW, said Hingley,
and similar levels of eciency to solar systems sold for homes in the UK. However, since
they may be used in countries where the demand for energy is much less, the Renovagen
system will be able to serve many more homes than a comparable solar array in Britain,
he said. The steel unit in which the spool of panels is housed has lifting rings on the top
which can be attached to helicopters so that the unit can be dropped by air.
When the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, Tacloban City was cut o
from supplies and while hospitals had diesel generators, there was no diesel to fuel
them. It is occasions like that where the Renovagen system could have been used to best
eect, said Hingley. I could see that if we could drop this on the ground at the
beginning, right after the disaster, then it could have powered all of that equipment in
the hospital, he said.
A second market is for the military, and specically for forward operating bases where
fuel is sometimes, in the case of remote operations, being own in.
The protection of fuel convoys has resulted in large numbers of military deaths, Hingley
said. You have to protect the convoys, you have to protect the ights going in, so it can
cost. The US army estimated that it can cost up to $400 per gallon to deliver fuel to those
bases.
Mining companies which may be exploring in specic areas for short periods at a time,
and need to be able to up and move, are also potential customers, he said. You might
only be at a particular site for a few weeks and then you might move a few miles [and] be
on that next site for a few weeks. And all of that might be so remote that you would have
to y fuel in for the diesel generators that you would be running.
So far, Renovagen has received orders for three prototype systems from an unnamed
client. Hingley expects them to get full regulatory approval in four months so they can
start to make and sell them on the market. The early versions can cost between 50,000
and 110,000 although he expectsthe price to drop substantially as the business grows
and the cost of solar and battery components comes down.
The company is targeting sales in markets where there is a need for o-the-grid power,
such as the United States, Canada and the Middle East. Hingley also hopes to attract
interest from Chile, where there is a large mining industry.
Other possible uses could be at festivals and in lming, where quiet energy generation is
needed, he said. Future plans are for a much larger-scale solar power unit, which will be
the size of a shipping container but will have a capacity of up to 150KW across an array
measuring 5 metres wide and 200 long.
You can read our archive of The innovators columns on the Big Innovation Centre
website where you will nd more information on how Big Innovation Centre supports
innovative enterprise in Britain and globally.
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