Texas-based Janta Power has just snagged US$5.5 million in a round of seed funding to continue the deployment of its pivoting solar power towers. The vertical design and smart tracking functions of the towers offer big improvements over flat panel arrays.
Currently, most solar farms consist of flat panels laid out across the ground or on rooftops. But in much the same way that this is an inefficient way to house people, it's also not a great way to harvest the Sun's energy. Tall skyscrapers can hold significantly more people on a small footprint, so why not apply that thinking to solar panels as well?
That's the kind of thinking that has been behind the success of Janta Power, a developer of unique three-dimensional solar tower systems. And the new injection of cash shows that there are investors who think that this company is on to something.
Janta's towers consist of solar panels arrayed vertically instead of horizontally. This means a lot more panels can get packed into a much smaller footprint.
The towers are also responsive, automatically tracking the Sun's movement throughout the day and pivoting to maximize the amount of light they can capture. Plus, because of the slanted upright design, the towers are able to position themselves to take in the sharp angles of early morning and late day sunlight, which is an ability that flat panels lack. This ability to grab the Sun's rays throughout more of the day means the towers produce a longer, more even flow of electricity than other panels that spike production when the Sun is overhead.
These innovations, says the company, mean that the towers can produce about 50% more energy than flat-panel systems using just one-third of the land area.
The towers are also able to reach a capacity factor of about 32%, which bests that of flat panels, which come in around 22%. Janta says the towers deliver power more cheaply as well: as low as $0.05/kWh compared to a global average of about $0.15/kWh. They're also built strong. The towers are rated to resist winds up to 170 mph.
Janta Power already has pilot programs operating at major airports around the world, including Munich International Airport and Dalls-Fort Worth. The new infusion of cash will help the company "support product scale-up and deployments across data centers, EV charging hubs, telecom towers, universities, and a range of industrial facilities," says Janta in a release about the funding win.
Source: Janta Power via GlobeNewswire
