"If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago," said Sir George Porter, the British chemist and Nobel Laureate, way back in 1973. Porter's words illustrate how important political will is in fostering the uptake of new technologies. In the latter half of the twentieth century, nuclear power was widely adopted in the developed world. Its rapid uptake was not due to its usability, sustainability, ecological credentials - or more accurately,  the lack of all three - but because of the perceived need to engage in an arms race in defence of national security.

What would it be like however, if energy generation was not the responsibility of governments, or large corporations, but of individuals? What if homes were so energy efficient that they generated their own energy? Well Sheila Kennedy, a visiting lecturer in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes that solar textiles have the potential to fundamentally change the way we get and use our energy.

Her Boston based company, Kennedy & Violich Architecture, was commissioned by the Vitra Design Museum in Essen Germany, to design a prefabricated "Soft House" and develop full scale energy harvesting textile prototypes. The design for the Soft House replaces many of the hard surfaces found in typical homes with translucent, movable, energy harvesting curtains containing embedded nanotechnology and thin-film photovoltaics. "Surfaces that define space can also be producers of energy," says Kennedy.

The centrepiece of the Soft House is a cylindrical curtain integrated into a skylight. Organic Photovoltaics, an emerging field in solar nanotechnology, are embedded into the curtain allowing it to harvest solar energy and convert it into electrical current. Rechargeable batteries enclosed in the curtain store the energy for later use, or transmission elsewhere, while solid state lighting contained within the fabric allows the stored energy to be re-emitted as light.

The flexibility of the fabric allows the cylinder to be utilised in a variety of ways. It can be used as a light funnel, directing light to any area within the home. It can hang as a chandelier illuminating the primary living area, or when fully lowered it can completely redefine the house's interior, by creating a totally autonomous living and working area that creates it's own power. Similar movable curtains punctuate the perimeter of the structure, providing a reconfigurable living space and giving the building an almost ethereal quality.

The development team found that, placed in a 1,200 square foot house, these materials could generate 16 kilowatts of direct current, or DC power. That's enough energy to meet half the daily energy requirements of a typical U.S. home. The photovoltaic curtains hang in locations with the greatest possible access to direct sunlight and mechanisms to integrate the energy generated to common household appliances such as, laptops, televisions, stereos and LED lighting, are included in the design. A means of water collection and distribution and several heating and cooling strategies to combat the effects of the necessary direct sunlight have also been added to the structure, which is 85% recyclable at the end of its life cycle.

Kennedy believes that in the future this technology could be used by individuals or neighbourhood groups to remove themselves from the power grid, and is keen to see her solar curtains in consumer-friendly DIY kits. "You could look at this as a type of urban farming," she says. As reported previously on Celsias thin-film photovoltaics can be produced in very large quantities with a low carbon footprint. Almost like a newspaper; they can be manufactured roll-to-roll. "That makes them very affordable," Kennedy says.

Solar power now seems to be at the point at which large scale deployment is not only possible, but essential if we are to prevent a Runaway Greenhouse Effect. It seems however, that we may be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. As reported recently on Celsias, under the guise of national security, the U.S. military plans to use coal as a future source of fuel. A strategy that relies on a dwindling supply of rocks for the future defence of a nation seems like no strategy at all. To quote the Irish-American actor, director and environmentalist Robert Redford: "I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defence of our resources is just as important as defence abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?"

Further Reading:

• Solar Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Solar Roads. The Power Under Our Feet
• Polar Explorer Raises the World's First Solar Sail  
• Concentrating Solar - Now Safe For Roof Tops
• Will Africa Be The Hub For a Green, Global "Super Energy Grid"?
• Nature Inspires Solar Power Revolution
• Solar Powered Car Arrives on the West Coast to Take in the Sun and Spread Renewable Technology Gospel
• Utah's Solar Fired Furnace to Power California for Less Than the Cost of Coal or Gas
• Solar Thermal Power Coming to a Boil
• First Solar to Build 10-Megawatt Photovoltaic Power Station
• Nanosolar Cheaper Than Coal
• Thin Film Solar Now Shipping