Although not our original goal, we soon discovered (with the help of our professors) that the shape of our panels, could be significant with regards to the surface are of the solar cells as well as shading that occurs with solar cells that track the sun. With this leaf type shape, when the panels would rotate, they would not shade the adjacent panels- so we were led to believe. This could be a very happy accident-and we wanted to test it.
Mat took our shapes and did a quick study.
We found that this actually would be the case, and therefore increased efficiency would result. This was very exciting, and when we looked more closely at the actual methods of producing solar cells, we discovered that it is unlikely that making the entire panel (and getting rid of the plastic, formica, and small solar cells) a solar cell, would significantly increase efficiency, and decrease other materials we needed for this project (plastic and formica). Because the process of making solar cells involves using a mold to aquire the desired shape (usually squares or rectangles), a mold of one of our panels could be used instead. This would significantly increase surface space, and efficiency.
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