Solar Cloth is unique in the world! It is able to produce solar panels laminated in textile in its clean room in the south of France. These flexible solar panels are of great interest to manufacturers. Since the launch of this project, Alain Janet, originally a master sailmaker, has seen requests pass that he would never have thought of when he imagined his first solar panel integrated into a sail.
Thus it is the aerospace companies that are asking for panels to equip the balloons they send to an altitude of 40,000 m to take samples. Or Californians who want to launch a huge autonomous airship. Finally, more concretely for us on Earth, the farmers who work under greenhouses equip them to create shade while ensuring energy autonomy.
For boating, the demand is lower, as Solar Cloth mainly equips biminis with sailboats or motorboats. More rarely sails for sailboats that are often equipped with an electric secondary propulsion.
Alain Janet admits that it is more interesting to provide 100 m2 for a farmer's greenhouse than 3m2 for a boat... But the possibility of making these panels for private individuals no longer poses any technical problems.
Technically, these extremely thin solar panels are capable of rolling. The prowess comes from their lightness (500 g/m2) and their power (12 to 16% efficiency). These characteristics, which are of interest to sailors, have proved their strength and efficiency, particularly on the IMOCA Foresight 100% Natural Energy, which produced a Vendée Globe in 2016-17. If these solar panels have today the best weight/power ratio on the market, they are also a little more expensive...
It is the technical skills of sailmaking, and in particular the ability to produce laminated sails, that have made it possible to design and manufacture these solar panels. It is funny to note that for once it is not the industry that provides solutions to the sailing industry, but the opposite! The David who gives ideas and supplies Goliath.
