Amish people reject societies electric utilities and grid but do allow themselves to make use of the sun’s rays. Referring to solar power as “God’s Grid” some Amish are selling solar panels. They use solar power to juice up the typical gadgets but also to charge up the batteries under their buggy’s.

This blurb from the Hartford Courant: “The Amish decide on whether to adapt to a new technology based on two implications: their separation from the world and the impact on the community,” said Kraybill, the professor.

To protect their community from the influence of the outside world, the Amish sometimes wait for a bishop council meeting before installing special solar equipment.”

Apparently they’re quite fearful about allowing technology into their lives and homes that would be a doorway to watering down their strict culture. Understandably, they don’t want their children being corrupted by modern society and they view this or any technology as a worldly threat.

Said one Amish man “”If we would introduce cars to our society, we would not have a community for very long. It would rip our family apart.”

The rest of the article can be read at the Hartford Courant online.

* (photo courtesy of CLEM MURRAY/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/MCT / September 16, 2008)

The Amish and Solar Power

Solyndra a Freemont California based solar product company has come up with what they claim is an improvement over the shape and performance of the typical flat solar panel. They have produced a photovoltaic panel that is more cylindrical in shape that according to them handles wind load and angle more effectively than a flat panel.

Solyndra constructs their panels of cylindrical modules that can capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity Traditional flat pvs require expensive mounting devices for installation and the flat surface of the panel is less effective at capturing sunlight as compared to the rounded modules that make up Solydra’s solar panel.

With convential flat panels the wind enters from the bottom of the panel forcing the panels to have to be strongly attached or mounted to the roof structure of any building. Solyndra’s panels are formed so that the wind actually flows through the gaps between the modules in the panel as you can see in the illustration. Their panels are also able to be fitted right next to each other snugly unlike conventional pvs, collecting the sun’s rays a little more effectively.

These solar panels can be installed without penetrating the actual roof structure unlike the typical solar panel. They handle the wind up to 130 mph so the attachment to a rooftop can be done with non-penetrating hardware and the whole installation can get done in the half the time. They say commercial installations will now take days instead of weeks.

The company produces these panels strictly for the commercial market here and Europe.

If you watch their video HERE you’ll see it’s basically plug ‘n play installation.

Solyndra Reshapes the Commercial Solar Panel