SOLAR AERIAL PIAZZA Over centuries past, human imagination has been captivated by a quest for the skies. Creative minds developed a series of inventions that could enable us to reach the clouds. In 1784, Jean-Pierre Blanchard fitted a hot air balloon with a manual steering propeller, inventing the first airship. The golden age of the zeppelins lasted almost three centuries and today could be on the verge of a comeback using the latest technologies.
Viewing platform.
TEAM José Miguel Mardones TEAM LOCATION Talca, Chile TECHNOLOGIES high-altitude thin-film solar ANNUAL CAPACITY 3,800 MWh
Photovoltaic panels are most often installed at ground level occupying large areas of land. This makes their utilization more difficult in dense cities due to the high value of land and the shading effects that buildings and street trees have on the panels. Solar Aerial Piazza uses argon and helium gas in hermetically sealed balloons to elevate a vast array of solar modules into the sky above the rooftops, allowing the park below to be open for public uses. The solar balloons are clad in a thin-film solar material that is flexible and golden in hue. Forty photovoltaic airships will be suspended in the Masdar skies containing a program that involves restaurants, bars, and viewpoints, open to the public, and creating a new skyline for Masdar City.
The solar airships take to the sky.
A magical array of solar panels floating in the sky.
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