Texas-based Janta Power recently raised $5.5 million in seed capital to roll out rotatable solar power towers. The towers' vertical design and smart tracking features offer substantial improvements over flat panel setups.
Currently, most solar farms consist of flat panels placed on the ground or on rooftops. But that does not appear to be the most efficient way to harvest the sun's energy. Tall skyscrapers can house significantly more people in a small area, so why not apply that line of thinking to solar panels as well?
That is the kind of thinking behind the success of Janta Power, a developer of striking three-dimensional solar power systems. And the new capital injection shows that there are investors who think this company has something special on its hands.
Janta's towers consist of solar panels placed vertically instead of horizontally. This means that many more panels can be placed on a much smaller area.
Vertical solar panels
The towers are also responsive: they automatically follow the movement of the sun during the day and rotate to capture as much light as possible. Moreover, their angled, upright design allows the towers to position themselves to catch the sharp angles of sunlight in the early morning and late afternoon, something that is less easy with flat-topped panels. Because of this ability to capture solar rays during a greater part of the day, the towers produce a greater amount of electricity than other, flat panels, which have peak production when the sun is directly overhead. Due to the special placement of the panels, the towers produce about 50% more energy than flat-panel systems, according to Janta Power. Moreover, they use only a third of the land area to do so .
The towers can also achieve a power factor of around 32%, which is better than that of flat panels, which is around 22%. Janta says the towers are also strong: they can withstand wind speeds of up to 170 mph.
Janta Power already has tests running at major airports, including Munich International Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth. The new cash injection will help the company roll out the product to data centres, EV charging stations, telecommunication towers, universities and a range of industrial facilities.
