The press release is a bit misleading.. The "story" is that this accordion arrangement of solar panels increases the solar power generated from a given area.

The press release is a bit misleading.. The "story" is that this accordion arrangement of solar panels increases the solar power generated from a given area. So if you have a square meter of space, you get 'x' Watts/m^2 by laying a flat panel on that space and you can get 'some number higher * x' watts/m^2 by stacking a bunch of panels up above that square meter of space. Forget cost of panels, that's not mentioned. All that is mentioned is you can get more Watts per square meter by stacking more panels. You may be paying 200x more money to get 20x more power. Each individual panel will be less efficient because it is not normal to the incident angle of the sun's rays, however you make up for it by having so many panels that you end up with net more energy. (Most of those panels are wasted though, by not pointing directly at the sun.) It's kind of a dumb "discovery". As a thought experiment, you could even stack your accordion of panels up several miles if cost is no concern. You'd even be able to generate power after sunset (at sea level) :)