SolarWindow – An Electricity-Generating Flexible Glass

The massive evolution of technology that we have seen over the decades hasn’t ceased to surprise us. There is always something that amazes us; and just when we think we are done with the latest technology, there are companies that come up with remarkable concepts that make our life easy and better.

If we are to talk about the skyscrapers we see in big cities, shining brightly, covered in glasses, it might only look like an architectural appearance to stand out. However, the concept of utilizing the glittering glasses to generate solar power is nonetheless, an amazing one. This idea has been gaining more popularity ever since it was tried in the non-residential buildings in the United States in 2009. There were 437 square feet of windows installed in these buildings, making a significant amount of power generation; almost the total installed solar capacity in the United States today.

With such potential, the solar generating glasses are to replace the general windows. These solar window makers believe that a window doesn’t have to be 100 per cent transparent and a solar panel doesn’t have to be 100 per cent opaque; rather, both can be somewhere in between. There are many ways in which a window can be converted into a power-generating device like thin-film silicon, dye-sensitized solar cells or tiny organic cells.

SolarWindow Technologies, Inc., the leading developer of transparent electricity generating coatings for glass windows and flexible veneers have announced to develop electricity-generating glasses that are flexible too! The SolarWindow scientists and engineers have tried several ways of laminating the Corning Willow Glass, under high pressure and temperature simulation. This produces a flexible glass that is as thin as a business card and when used, generates electricity as well.

To reduce the carbon footprint, SolarWindow would be installing these sheets of veneers over the glasses of the existing skyscrapers and convert the surface of the building into a vertical power generator. Since these veneers are super flexible, they can be used over curved surfaces of automobiles, buses, aeroplanes, boats or trucks to generate power onboard. These veneers can be applied over glasses and plastics as well, and works well under natural, artificial, shaded, low or even reflected light conditions.

The liquid coating technology by SolarWindow has received recognition in numerous industry publications and has been independently validated the generation of 50 times the power of a usual rooftop solar system.

Photo Credit: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/solar-window-solar-panel/