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Solar Window Panes
Val42K writes "Now, those windows that allow glare onto your computer screen can be useful. They will provide power to your computer, air conditioning and other useful necessities. Energy conversion rates are 'way more than 50 percent'."
well I kinda wondered about how it would work so well in NY cuz some buildings or in the shadow of others. Second, if this gets implemented and than a couple days of no sun pop up wouldn't it stress out the grid a bit more than normal
If I understand this right, we don't necessarily have to put these in windows to use their power. They could be railings on walkways, desks, sculptures....lots of possibilities.
Maybe someday everything we build will take solar energy.
I'm a little skeptical of the technology. It seems like they are just repositioning solar panels in a novel way so that they are integrated into the existing decor. However, the best common solar panels today are only 20% efficient and the common ones you see on houses are only 10% efficient. For the researcher to generally state 'way more than 50%' rings alarm bells in my head.
Does anyone know why these would be so much better than existing tech?
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
Both. Take a look at the pictures that go with the article. It looks like each 'solar chip' has a largish fresnel lens that focuses sunlight onto the chip. The lens/chip assemblies appear to track the sun, and you can look past these and still have a relatively clear view as long as you're not looking in the general direction of the sun (which you're not supposed to do anyway). The lenses provide shade by focusing sunlight onto the chips, but they also allow ambient light to enter, so a room fitted with these solar windows would still get plenty of light.
Cool.
In the article it states that the squares are translucent, but solar cells appear dark in color because they are asorbing energy and the silicon that it is stated they are made of isn't transparent(at least the last time I checked) unless they adapted the formula for transparent aluminum.
If these chips were actually 50% efficient wouldn't the target application be either large scale solar energy collection or satellites or something, not automatic window blinds like stated? Satellite companies would jump all over this if it were true. Some of the best GaAs triple junction cells are only around 30% efficient. I would really like to have some more information about the actual junction(s) used within the silicon.
Funny, I was just thinking about something like this.. My idea wasn't transparent though. Generally, office windows are too big, and frequently blocked by furnature. 8-foot tall windows do give a pretty good surface area to work with.
What if....
Take a reasonable area of the window, and mount solar cells and peltier elements flush to the window. Admitted, it won't work on all sides of the buildings, but 50% of most buildings could use it.
The solar panels aren't enough to say run the whole office, but they would be good for powering the peltier elements, and supplementing the building power. Say it took 25% of the load off the building, that would be substantial.
Peltier elements are usually good for a 70 degree difference in temperature between the front and back of the element. So, if it's 100 degrees on the hot side, it could be 30 degrees on the cool side. Ahhh, on a 100 degree day, wouldn't it be nice to be in a cold office?
Many buildings (architects can argue this all day) have a decent space between floors, for ducts, plumbing, power, and the thickness of the floor itself. The outside of the building in those spaces is unused non-window space. If the buildings, by design, used that space for solar panels, and used peltier coolers as part of their cooling system, cooling at least part of the outside surface in the summer and heating it in the winter, the power reduction would be tremendous.
Most of the buildings I've worked in for long durations were in the southern part of the US. Those buildings usually require cooling year round to maintain the appropriate temperatures, thanks to all the hot equipment we run inside.
Just my thoughts.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.