You have to hand it to the Israelis. As the world's
photovoltaic cell producers scramble to find more
effective and cheaper ways of installing pv cells
onto the limited space availalbe on buildings, a
research team at the Tecnnicon Israel institute of
Technology has come up with a way of coating helium
balloons with photovotaic cells and floating them
above the rooftops of buildings on the ground.
The balloons in question would be similar to the
helium balloons you can buy at the fair, just a
little bigger, measuring 1-2 meters in diameter and
they would be connected to the ground by two
cables--one to keep the helium topped up and the
other to send power back into the building below.
The researchers reckon that most homes would only
need one or two balloons to meet their entire power
needs, and that they would be much cheaper to build
and install than existing solar panels and take up
much less room.
So will we, in the future, see flotillas of shiny
balloons adorning the roofs of houses and apartment
blocks across the world's sunnier regions, like the
Mediterranean--as commonplace a feature as the
ubiquitous TV aerial or satellite dish? Mabye. But
would they withstand the attention of curious birds
(who are known to be attracted to all things shiny),
or for that matter would they survive in windier
areas where they could be battered against the
rooftops, if not carried off completely?
