Australian company 5B has developed a modular solar array that can fold and unfold like an accordion, and it is capable of surviving in violent winds.
The American power utility AES Corporation gave the company a contract to produce 69 megawatts of solar energy in Jobos, Puerto Rico, an area prone to hurricanes. The package will also include 100 megawatts of four-hour battery storage, according to Electrek.
The company is set to bring almost 1,400 5B Maverick arrays to the area. They are specifically designed to endure the region's volatile weather conditions, including 166-mile-per-hour winds. Every Maverick has 90 solar modules mounted between 10 steel-concrete beams, and they can fold up like an accordion, which means they can be produced in Adelaide, Australia, and shipped efficiently. The foldable design also allows them to be transported and reused in other locations, and assembly is incredibly efficient.
"5B's pre-fabricated solar array, the 5B Maverick, addresses key issues faced by the North American market as the industry scales," said David Griffin, the CEO of 5B, per Electrek. "Land and remote labor is becoming more expensive and harder to source. Being pre-fabricated means that 70% of the labor is removed from the field. Our 5B Maverick is also energy dense, using half the land of conventional solar array solutions."
Solar energy infrastructure is massively important to help cool the planet down, as burning dirty energy sources directly contributes to the Earth's dangerous overheating. Other potential future solar projects may soon come to the Swiss Alps, the Caribbean, and Ute territory in the United States.
Electrek users expressed their enthusiasm for the project in the comment section.
"So cool, as panels get cheap, you don't have to worry about pointing them right at the sun. This uses more panels but fewer acres to make electricity," one user wrote.
"Good stuff," another user said.
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