Click on any of the photos with an orange border to see a larger version. Dr. Smestad's 'Solyndra Study' Picassa™ photo album will open in a new tab.
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These cylindrical solar PV
tubes are not available for purchase.
Photo: Greg P. Smestad
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Dr. Smestad first noticed something odd about the glass tubes at Solyndra long before the media did. He wrote this up in an article for Greentech Media. This led to his interview on CBS 5 (KPIX San Francisco). PJ Media ran a story on an art exhibit at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden that used nearly 1,400 tubes formerly at Solyndra.
Available Items and Specifications
- Each cylindrical solar photovoltaic (PV) tube is a mini-solar module in itself, generating approximately 100 Volts DC at 40 mA; these solar modules are no longer available for purchase. Forty such 4 Watt tubes were used in a full Solyndra PV module.
- The above PV tube was constructed using two concentric glass tubes. Thousands of clean, unused tubes were saved and a few were made available. They are high-quality soda lime glass tubes with outside diameters (OD) of 22 mm or 15 mm and a wall thickness of 1.35 mm. The glass tubes are 103.5 cm long and yielded a PV tube with a photovoltaic active (CIGS-coated) length of 100 cm. Please see the data sheets below for complete technical details.
- To purchase a unique and
innovative jig that can safely and easily cut glass tubes in small quantities, please see Ephrem's
Bottle Cutting web site. For an instructional
video on how to cut the tubes, view Ephrem's
video.
Data Sheet / Spec Sheet
Related Links
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