Brian wrote:
Mark, Try this company below.

http://www.spheralsolar.com/

Great find, thanks, but vaporware presently, they should be available
soon(?), after fab plant rampup. The spherical silicon bead technology
has been around for a decade, TI was initially involved, but bailed
out. These things may be *really* flexible compared to the stainless
steel backing designs. Wonder how tightly they roll up, the 75 watt
panel allegedly has a 6x2 foot form factor?

Imagine throwing 300 watts of panels onto the foredeck at anchor, then
rolling them up in their bags and storing them in a cockpit locker
underway. Due to the technology, they might be fairly shade tolerant
and orientation noncritical, too. I'll be following their progress
with interest, and considerable skepticism.

From their parent company annual report:
"SSP is currently in a very important phase of its commercialization
program. Using valuable insights gained from the limited actual
production of the
first fully-functional SSP SuperFlex™ units in early fiscal 2006, the
SSP factory is scheduled to undergo an intense and iterative
optimization program.
Each iteration of the optimization program is expected to provide
meaningful, incremental increases in throughput and efficiency and to
move the
productive output of this first commercial SSP factory towards its
targeted factory nameplate capacity of 20 megawatts per annum. This
process
is intended to demonstrate the expected cost advantages and
manufacturability of SSP products on a commercial scale which is
necessary for
successful commercialization."