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UCLA Develops Transparent, Electricity-Generating, Solar Cell Windows
Elliot Chang writes "A team from UCLA has developed a new transparent solar cell that has the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside. In short, they've created a solar power-generating window! Described as 'a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC)' that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light instead of traditional visible light, the photoactive plastic cell is nearly 70% transparent to the human eye — so you can look through it like a traditional window."
so, like about as transparent as your shower door with some soap scum on it? 30% obfuscation seems like a lot...
Want to sound like a fourth grader shilling their science project? Use exclamation marks in your summary.
Disclosure: I am not an investor or employee.
The company XSUNX has been doing this for a few years with Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide (as a competitor to Silicon and which theoretically is supposed to be better for the environment), generating thin film solar power that you can see through. Their first generation was a smoky amber glass with slight distortion; their current generation film is more like a tinted window.
I could use some for my Prius...
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produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light instead of traditional visible light
Unclear how much energy you get in exchange for adsorbing 30% of the visible light and probably all the IR. However, if its a lot of light, it might be worthwhile to dip old fashioned incandescent bulbs into this goo. Rather optimistically, if it can generate more than 40% of the nameplate wattage by adsorbing all the IR and 30% of the visible, then you'd get ahead by recycling that power back into the grid. Not a perpetual motion machine, because 70% of the visible is still leaking out the lampshade, but it would be like the world's weirdest phosphor basically eating IR photons and emitting visible photons.
This does bring up the interesting point for unshaded windows, if it eats 30% of visible light, that merely means you need 30% more ultra-low-R value window area, or 30% more lightbulbs inside to brighten the room back up. So its not going to work well for windows in rooms where the drapes are always open and people are always inside. Great idea for my garage or bedroom (why do those have windows, anyway?) terrible idea for my office / kitchen / living room. Solar panel covered shutters seem like a good idea for the garage and bedroom... if the panels are rockin don't come a knockin or whatever.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Do you know what's even more plentiful and cheaper than fossil fuels? Poor people. We should be burning them instead.
So if I replaced a section of optical fiber with this stuff, it would look on the OTDR like the worlds most uninteresting little bump (oh look, sloppy winding in the splice case results in a minor bump, eh who cares) and I could detect the electrical field... Sounds like a optical tap design.
Of course a beam splitter would probably be a lot simpler, but supposedly there does not exist a beamsplitter design that doesn't inherently create what amounts to multipath that "looks like a beamsplitter" on a OTDR so simply doing something weird when you're tapping might help avoid detection.
The only undetectable optical tap I can think of is chilled-PMT based... I think that would be fairly undetectable if done right.
I haven't directly hands on done fiber since early 90s so I'm not sure. Probably fiber work is much like IT and CS, there is nothing new, just recycled old ideas along a baseline of slowly increasing speeds.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
"Our new PSCs are made from plastic-like materials and are lightweight and flexible," he said. "More importantly, they can be produced in high volume at low cost."
Of course, I'll believe that when I see the bill. However, if it works as they say about the only downside is that you won't get as much heat during cold winters through the windows. That's actually about it. Oh yeah, and they are polymers so they may require oil to be produced (maybe, not sure and don't care enough to find out). Maybe some Slashdoter could get worked up about that or something.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
If it is absorbing mostly on the infrared spectrum, I bet it would help keep your house pretty cool on those hot sunny days.
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
Depending on the efficiency, it might be an interesting choice for something like one (North or South) side of a large glass building, effectively giving you a large solar array for windows that you were going to put in anyway.
"With this combination, 4% power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells has been achieved."
Okaay...
Blocking UV would have some benefits as well.
I seem to recall IR it is blocking is also a major part of heat transference. There could be some definite savings on cooling bills throughout the sun belt/southwest.
Anybody else reminded of the Heinlein stories where Solar panels took off when they started generating energy from the full range of cosmic radiation bombarding the Earth? Led to commuter roads in "The Roads must roll".
Solar's getting cheap as hell these days. I've seen residential solar panels at $0.82 a watt
3. Twenty story buildings generally have more glass space than roof space.
4. You could put 20% efficient panels on your roof, put 4% efficient film on your windows, or both.
Solar is already available and affordable for many uses. I expect a calculator (If I ever own a dedicated unit again) to run off of solar power. Solar yard lighting is also heavily used because it is widely available and affordable. Solar for road signs in remote areas, and emergency call boxes are also the norm.
30 years ago, photovoltaic panels were an oddity. Your average person never saw them. Today, they are everywhere. You can't walk through a Walmart without seeing them all over the place for sale.
Beyond that, conservation alone is a dead end. It is an acceptance that we are going to run out, and we just want to make the party last one more day.
Similar work is being done at MIT.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/transparent-solar-windows-0415.html
For the folks wondering what 70% transparent windows look like, I think the small glass pictured in that article is 65% transparent. Certainly good enough for ambient lighting in an office.
From the units posted on the graph, the windows in the Passivhaus are emitting radiation consistent with a 1-2C increase in temperature (or, rather, the difference between 37/39.2F and 41F), while those for the traditional structure are consistent with a ~4C increase in temperature (or, rather, the difference between 37/39.2F and 46F). (Compared to double-pane, low-E, R-3 (U-factor 0.3) windows, triple-pane windows (typically R-5/U-factor 0.2) can reduce average heat loss through the window by more than 30 percent, when compared to R-3 windows in residential buildings situated in northern climate zones.) To say that the windows in the Passivhaus are leaking heat like a sieve is specious.
We should be burning them instead.
We are
I wonder if we can make a window that absorbs bomb blasts (In some places there's more of that than sunlight.) and generates electricity.
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