Solar Walls
Generating heat and power from the sun doesn’t have to involve huge projects like the new 5 megawatt Kimberlina solar thermal power plant in Bakersfield. Conserval Engineering, which has offices in less-than sunny Buffalo and Paris, developed SolarWall panels decades ago which are made from simple corrugated and perforated galvanized steel. The panels are attached to the outside of the south-facing walls of industrial and commercial buildings and the sun-warmed air that is created in this cavity is vented up and into heating ducts. This simple technology generates six times the power of similarly-sized photovoltaic solar panels, but costs one-tenth the price.