Transparent Window Solar Panels

Companies to sell solar technology to window manufacturers

All buildings need windows- wouldn’t be amazing if those windows could act both as a window and also as a solar panel, generating power for that building?

Imagine a home or office with windows that don’t only block out the heat from the sun, but also capture solar energy. ‘See-through solar’ is the latest revelation in solar power technology. Imagine if we didn’t have to sacrifice our rooftops and instead, we put transparent solar cells wherever windows already exist on the building? Large windows capable of letting in the glorious sunshine and even capable of creating solar energy heating for in the winter time.

By creating see-through cells, there is a whole lot more potential available to stick solar cells in places we didn’t think were possible before. Transparent solar cells mean that we can think outside the box and put them in other places besides rooftops.

But how does it work?

There a few ways to create window solar panels:

One way is to use what is called, ‘Photovoltaic Glass Units’. This is combining optical technologies with our traditional silicon photovoltaic cells that we use on our standard solar panels. The photovoltaic glass units use an optical system wedged between layers of glass to control the sunlight passing through the glass window. Simultaneously, the glass unit controls the amount of solar energy that is transmitted through the window.

Another way is to use solar cells embedded in a thin film that can be sprayed onto glass for windows. The thin films are sprayed onto the glass, and inside those films, tiny organic solar cells collect light from both the sun and from light bulbs. These cells create a more ‘transparent’ look.

As it stands, the overall efficiency of solar panel windows is lower than the efficiency of ordinary solar panels. But large windows give a larger surface area to play with and research is under way to improve the efficiency of this new technology.