Tapping into
solar energy at home currently means having rooftop solar panels installed, or
if Elon Musk gets his way, solar tiles. But Michigan State University (MSU) has
other ideas. It wants homes to generate lots of solar energy, but without the
rooftop modification.
How can you
add solar power generation to a building without it being visible? You use
transparent panels of solar cells positioned over each window.
According
toRichard Lunt, the Johansen Crosby Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical
Engineering and Materials Science at MSU, it could replace rooftop solar:
“We analyzed
their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices
can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar while
providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings,
automobiles and mobile electronics.”
The benefits
of transparent solar are clear (sorry!). Adding a transparent panel over an
existing window is easier than installing a frame and heavy panels on a roof.
It looks better because it's an almost invisible system, and if something goes
wrong with a panel then the replacement will likely be something the homeowner
can carry out without help.
Each panel
is a transparent luminescent solar concentrator constructed from plastic-like
material containing organic molecules developed by the team at MSU. They absorb
non-visible wavelengths of sunlight which get passed to very thin photovoltaic
strips at the edge of the panel and generate energy.
Transparent
solar isn't new, but the best on the market today are colored as opposed to
completely transparent and have a conversion efficiency of seven percent. MSU's
transparent panels achieve above five percent efficiency, and while they'll
never match non-transparent panels, they can be used in many more places. So
what they lose in efficiency they can make up for in coverage.
Now imagine
those transparent panels added to every sheet of glass in a skyscraper, and
every home or car window, and you can see the potential for invisible energy
generation. MSU is also keen to point out any screen we use could also employ
this solar tech, including the smartphones we all carry around.
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