Over the past years, several companies have been invented technologies which allows see-thru windows to be converted into solar panels. These have included Octillion’s NanoPower window, EnSol’s metal nanoparticle-based spray-on product and RSi’s photovoltaic glass.
Maryland-based New Energy Technologies has great plans for the future – they want to develop a new type energy generating window. Last week, the company has unveiled a working 12 x 12 inch prototype of its SolarWindow product.
The new prototype features a spray-on photosensitive film. Being applied at room temperature, it allows the window to remain transparent and is also able to produce energy from both natural and artificial light.
The company has not revealed other details regarding this system yet. New Energy Technologies claims that the film replaces the visibility-blocking metal, used by most solar panels with more transparent and eco-friendly compounds.
SolarWindow is made of the world’s smallest working organic solar cells, developed by Dr. Xiaomei Jiang at the University of South Florida. The cells, measure less than 1/4 the size of a rice grain.
When the new product will be applied to the facade of an office tower, for example, it will be capable of generating energy that would save about 300 percent more than a regular rooftop photovoltaic panel.
