What is going on if the sun shining in through the windows could be used to power your home or business? With these new transparent solar panels, that imagination could become a reality.
Transparent Solar Panels for Windows
The latest technology to enter the world of solar power is photovoltaic (PV) glass, also known as transparent solar panels. This technology can create windows that develop power where windows already exists, like businesses, our homes, car windows & sunroofs, and even smartphones.
The first group to create this type of clear solar panel in 2014 was the group of researchers at Michigan State University, and now researchers elsewhere in the United States and in Europe have been able to produce fully transparent solar glass.
How They Work
The job of a solar panel is to absorb sunlight and convert that sunlight into power.
This new technology can turn essentially any glass sheet or window into a PV cell. This cell selectively chooses a portion of the solar spectrum that the human eye can’t see, while allowing the rest of the light to pass through.
The TLSC is orginated from organic salts that absorb specific invisible UV and infrared light wavelengths which are then made to glow as another invisible wavelength. That wavelength is then transferred to the edge of the window where thin PV solar strips convert it into energy.
A New Breakthrough
Michigan University researchers set a new experiment for efficiency of color-neutral transparent solar cells. Using an organic, carbon-based design, they achieved:
- 8.1% efficiency
- 43.3% transparency
“Windows, which are on the face of every building, are an ideal location for organic solar cells because they offer something silicon can’t, which is a combination of very high efficiency and very high visible transparency,” Engineering professor Stephen Forrest explained.
The idea is essentially to use the coating that most building windows already have to help reduce brightness and heat inside the building to instead create energy.
Windows of the Future
It is reported that the United States has anywhere from five to seven billion square meters of glass surfaces. Transparent solar panels have the potential to achieve to 40% of the country’s energy demands. Blend them with rooftop solar panels and we have the potential to meet 100% of our current energy needs.
