This Window Can Help Power A Skyscraper

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This window can help power a skyscraper: Imagine if windows could be designed to collect the electricity used to power a home or a skyscraper. The technology that could make that a reality might be closer than you think. In fact, it could be ready by next year, said John Conklin, the president and CEO of SolarWindow Technologies Inc.

This is something that would revolutionize clean energy for large commercial buildings, which are the company's primary target market, Conklin told National Observer. “I truly believe it’s one of the most disruptive and perhaps one of the single greatest breakthroughs in clean energy ever,” he said.

Maintaining the window's transparency a challenge:

Designing the technology has meant working out solutions. The biggest has been ensuring the windows remain transparent while still generating enough electricity. The windows require a special coating that turns ordinary glass into a conductor that transforms energy into electricity that feeds directly into the building's power system.

During Maryland-based SolarWindow’s early years in 2009 and 2010, a number of individuals told the firm’s team that it would be impossible for them to create a transparent photo-voltaic technology. “We defied that,” Conklin said.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has been working with SolarWindow on the technology and the two partners are now focused on ensuring that the coatings can work on larger areas of glass. “Challenges are always there. Nothing is easy in this area,” said Maikel van Hest, a senior scientist in the Thin Film and Processing Group within the National Center for Photovoltaics at NREL.

Right now, SolarWindow estimates that its technology can generate 50 times more energy than rooftop solar panels would in a 50-storey building. Using all four sides of the building, in a 50-story glass skyscraper, this would consist of six acres of glass - enough to provide far more than the one megawatt of power that would come from a rooftop solar array, Conklin said. This is much more space than what's available on a skyscraper’s roof. “The name of the game is real estate,” he said.

Overall, the refurbished windows could offset the equivalent of the emissions from vehicles traveling nearly 3.5 million kilometres by reducing energy demands in a 50-storey building, Conklin estimated. But he also noted that skyscrapers use huge amounts of energy and that the new solar windows would only cover somewhere between 30 to 50 per cent of total power consumption. “This is a tremendous opportunity for the environment, a tremendous opportunity for renewable energy and especially for tall towers and skyscrapers to finally get some renewable energy.”

Home owners might one day find the same technology in their houses. The more glass a home has, the more power it would be able to generate. But for now, SolarWindow plans to pursue the more lucrative commercial market first, where Conklin believes there are significant business opportunities. He said the commercial market is huge, estimated to be a $100-billion global market for flat glass and fabricated windows. Out of that, SolarWindow is targeting some five million commercial buildings in the U.S.

Here's how the SolarWindow works:

SolarWindow’s organic photovoltaic technology uses ordinary window glass and then applies different layers of coatings made of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen are applied. Transparent conductors form two layers. Between the two is a third layer, which absorbs light. When it comes in contact with the chemical coating, the solar energy is transformed into electrons. The movement of the electrons produces the electricity on the surface of the glass. The conductors on each side transport the electricity to ultra-thin wires inside the window frame. Those in turn feed the energy into the building’s electrical systems.

Conklin, an industrial consultant who has studied chemical engineering, helped develop similar surfacing coating techniques used in the fabrication of the United States Stealth Battleship prototype while at Excel Precision Inc. He is also the founder and vice president of National Solar Systems, LLC, a New York-based renewable and alternative energy design and installation firm.

SolarWindow is not alone in trying to develop solar-powered windows. Some companies, for example, have small strips over the glass that absorb the light. But these strips wind up creating a pattern that’s almost like having window blinds, according to van Hest.

But while no company has yet managed to commercialize a truly see-through window, SolarWindow says their windows will be like any other windows and will come in architecturally desirable tints and shades. “That’s the nice thing about SolarWindow’s photovoltaic, the way they’re doing it. It’s not obstructing your view from the outside world,” said van Hest from NREL, the U.S. government lab.

But he added that with every step comes a new hurdle, such as choice of materials or how those materials are applied. “Yeah there’s definitely some hurdles, but we have pathways on taking those hurdles and taking it to the next step, which would be commercialization.”

Paula McGarrigle, managing director of SOLAS Energy Consulting Inc. in Calgary, said SolarWindow’s concept is great. “I love the idea of using the horizontal spaces on windows to generate electricity.” According to McGarrigle, the economics of the technology will depend on a number of variables such as the energy load of the building, how much surface area is available on a building and the power prices of a jurisdiction.

Conklin said the cost of SolarWindow’s technology would be “low,” and calls it a “very small add-on price point to an existing window,” which would be paid back in less than one year for a skyscraper.

Solar power from all four sides of a building:

In order to get their technology to market, SolarWindow needs to raise additional capital. To date, the company has relied on private placements from investors. The firm also wants to form partnerships with glass and window fabrication companies as well as chemical companies.

Conklin, who describes himself as risk-averse, said it’s not his intention to start the company up in a $45-$50-million production facility when glass manufacturers already exist. “We’ve already demonstrated our process can be seamlessly integrated into a glass manufacturer or window fabricator and coated right at their facility.”

Partnerships with the right chemical firms are important because the technology employs various chemicals applied to glass to generate the electricity. Such partnerships will enable SolarWindow to hold down its operating expenses and capital costs while achieving an affordable price for the windows.

The technology is able to generate power on all four sides of a building, not just on the south-facing side in the Northern hemisphere. Conklin said the coatings can create electricity under shaded, diffused and low-light conditions.

That ability to use the same glass on all four sides of a building will make the technology attractive to architects, developers and designers who are looking to generate renewable energy but still maintain the aesthetic beauty of a building, Conklin added.

Electricity Generating Windows

Electricity generating windows: An interview with John A. Conklin

Electricity generating windows: An interview with John A. Conklin - SolarWindow is a new see-­through electricity generating coating technology designed for glass windows for tall towers, skyscrapers and detached homes in the US.  The company claims the product has the potential to offset 30 to 50 percent of the energy demand when installed on a 50-­story building - with a calculated one­-year financial payback.

SolarWindow has been developed to performance standards in order to give real estate developers, engineers, architects, building designers, and future customers plenty of financial incentive and it has been rigorously tested for durability, degradation, and performance. REM talked to SolarWindow President and CEO John Conklin to find out more.

Tell me about the company

SolarWindow Technology is developing the first of its kind electricity generating coating which is transparent for windows and flexible plastic and the product is targeted for over 5 million commercial buildings and 80 million detached homes, just in the United States alone. Certainly our mission is pretty simple and that is to create solar window products which produce clean energy, is economically feasible, has a very short ROI and benefits the environment.

How were these windows developed and how do they work?

SolarWindow is a transparent coating that is primarily organic. Basically we combine carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and create our device that generates electricity. We constantly refine our layers based on colour and light transmission or transparency so that we can extract the power that we need from the window to satisfy a building energy demand.

How do these windows perform with regard to electricity generation when compared to PV systems?

There are some distinct differences in that SolarWindow is a technology that is based on transparency, a technology that has been developed for a window and not a coating that has been developed for a tablet or electronic reader and then we apply it to a glass window. The inception of its early-stage prototype has been developed for windows, specifically tall towers and skyscrapers. The importance there is the transparency, the other thing to keep in mind being that we are going vertical with that valuable glass real estate. When we look at conventional PV and putting that on the roof of a tall tower or skyscraper, there is very little surface area for those modules to generate meaningful power. When we look at the vast surface area of all four sides of a tall tower or skyscraper, that presents valuable real estate to us by which SolarWindow can take a passive, energy saving window and turn it into an active energy generating window that helps produce a meaningful offset of the building energy demand.

From what I read of your product, the windows can perform when installed on all sides of a building. How does that work?

That is one of the beauties of the technology. Conventional PV, whether crystalline PV or thin-film PV, really requires, in the Northern Hemisphere, a southern orientation. That is really important for that type of PV because the orientation allows the maximum sunlight to hit those panels to generate electricity. As you change that angle, it moves further east or west, it loses the ability to generate electricity and then you really have to rely on early morning sun or very late day sun and that is a very limited time of the day. SolarWindow has been developed to work not only when exposed to natural sunlight but it can also generate electricity when exposed to artificial light and that is not limited to only incandescent fluorescent lamps, LEDs, halogen lamps, it can generate electricity under any of those, but to go one step further, we don’t need a complete southern exposure for the technology to work. Our technology works under very low light conditions, diffused light, shaded light. More importantly, when we look at a building, there is always that northern face that doesn’t see direct sunlight. However, because we can generate energy from reflected light as well, it allows us to coat the entire building, all four sides, with the SolarWindow and be able to produce meaningful power under all of those artificial and sunlight conditions. The diversity of light conditions is a feature, allowing us to generate under all of those low and diffused light conditions including reflected light.  

Why are these windows coloured rather than truly transparent?

They are coloured but they are also transparent, and keep in mind that our target is those tall towers and skyscrapers, the glass in those windows is generally tinted and it serves a number of purposes. First, it helps with heat and reflecting that light to control heat. It is also required by architects for the very aesthetically appealing features of the building and some of those windows are either very dark or have a mirror finish to them. So when we were developing SolarWindow, the objective was to develop the product that provides colour options that are available to architects, building developers, building owners and engineers that need those design bases for those tall towers and skyscrapers.

The sheets of glass in the pictures on your website seem rather small to me, is it possible to produce any larger sheets?

Those are only development steps, the product itself and the coating methods we are using are for large area sheet-to-sheet coating, which means that we are looking at coating 18 feet by 18 feet panes of glass and we are also looking at the high speed roll to roll coating so we are looking at coating 10,000 feet in ten minutes, so our coating methods are being developed for those very large area or high speed volume manufacturing.

What stage is this at? Is there demand for these windows yet and when will they be commercially available?

We have been talking with many of the glass industry manufacturers around the world. These companies span the glass industry, from the companies that make the sheets of glass right through to the fabricators that actually build the windows and there is tremendous interest in SolarWindow, primarily because of the growing glass market and the rising energy demand. We believe, moving forward through our commercialisation timing and when we are actually going to bring this to a product for sale, that there will be continued and heightened interest, moving forward.

We are looking at year end 2017. That’s predicated on a couple of very important development objectives. We are certainly in the process of raising capital, and that’s critical. Next is formulating strategic relationships in the glass, energy and chemical industries. That will give us instant outreach to the building segment and the ability to put our product in our better, faster ways. Third is, with those strategic partnerships, to build those SolarWindows that are ready for commercial production.

What plans have you got for future growth/expansion?

Looking at SolarWindows from two perspectives, the first and most important is the development of the SolarWindow product. The second objective is the electricity-generating coating in itself. So as we build out the SolarWindow product, we are on a parallel path to developing other products that utilise our transparent electricity-generating coating. As the company continues to develop these products, we will licence our technology, the licence being in the form of a licenced product, licencing the technology and know-how, licencing to a territory or a geographic region and then finally licencing the technology for a field of use. The development of the company will keep in mind each of those licencing models and thus keep the company moving forward through to the next ten years.

Anything else you would like to mention?

The most important thing to keep in mind is that right now, the tall towers and skyscrapers do not have a way of offsetting energy. It’s going to be critical for those structures, moving forward, to look at their carbon footprint, to determine how they can offset their increasing energy demand and go beyond energy management and energy conservation devices. They will be looking toward generating renewable energy and by doing so, not taking up valuable urban or rural land to do so, and being able to utilise the vast surfaces on those buildings to generate the energy required to offset the energy demand. I believe that we are, right now, approaching a very critical time in renewable energy in that SolarWindow may be one of the biggest single breakthroughs in clean energy, ever.

New Energy Technologies - Electricity With Every Window

New energy technologies want to make electricity with every window

New Energy Technologies want to make electricity with every window: American company, new energy technologies is developing electricity generating transparent windows and products for america’s 85 million detached homes and commercial buildings. Their mission has been to create solar windows which produce impressive amounts of clean electricity, that benefit the environment and the building landscape. The team developed a coating capable of generating electricity on glass and flexible plastics that is processed uniformly in different color tints. these polymer organic photovoltaic arrays are clear and only capture UV rays which can be scaled up and have unparalleled manufacturablilty. 

Researchers view through electricity generating ‘solarwindow’

Unlike traditional building applied photovoltaic systems, restricted to use in direct sunlight on very limited skyscraper rooftop space, their ‘solarwindow’ is designed to operate in sunlight, shaded conditions and artificial light on the many thousands of square feet of glass surfaces common to today’s high rise towers. the technology is the subject of forty two patent filings, and researchers are on the track to advance the project towards full scale production. 

They are being developed in architecturally-neutral colors

They can tint in custom colors

The clear film only captures UV light

Testing the film using artificial light

Can be applied on traditional skyscraper windows

The president is pushing a clean energy loan guarantee program, which helped electric car success story Tesla, but also failed solar company, Solyndra. President Obama just announced a series of initiatives to encourage solar and other green technologies, as he tries to spur development of cleaner power sources.

The push will involve more than $1 billion in government funds to back new clean energy and energy efficiency projects along with funding research and development of new energy technologies. While the individual actions are small, Obama’s overarching plan and public pitch shows his growing attention to both clean energy, as well as initiatives to fight climate change. In his final term in office, Obama is now focused on a legacy committed to climate change, and recently finalized a highly controversial plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power industry.

Obama formally unveiled the plan Monday afternoon in Las Vegas at a clean energy-focused conference sponsored by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). The White House released details about the address earlier in the day.

The Energy Department will oversee many of the new initiatives including another $1 billion for its loan program that has previously been both lauded and vilified. The agency previously gave loans to electric car company Tesla and the large solar farm Ivanpah, but also to failed solar panel maker Solyndra, which created a political firestorm with Republicans who criticized the administration for wasting taxpayer money on a flimsy business.

The loan program has made $30 billion in total commitments over the years to get new nuclear, solar and wind projects built, or new green technologies from big companies like Nissan or smaller companies like Tesla. Many of the very large solar panel projects built in the deserts of California and Nevada made use of these loans.

At the same time, the Energy Department clarified that the loan program can now be used to fund “distributed energy” projects, which are decentralized technologies like roof top solar panels, batteries in buildings or connected to the power grid, or adding computing intelligence to the grid. Much of the clean energy projects that have historically used the loans have been large “centralized” energy projects, which involve a utility buying and distributing the energy to its customers.

Making Every Window A Power Source

Researchers at Michigan State University have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass into a photovoltaic solar cell.

A fully transparent solar cell that could make every window and screen a power source: Researchers at Michigan State University have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone’s screen) into a photovoltaic solar cell. Unlike other “transparent” solar cells that we’ve reported on in the past, this one really is transparent, as you can see in the photos throughout this story. According to Richard Lunt, who led the research, the team are confident that the transparent solar panels can be efficiently deployed in a wide range of settings, from “tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader.”

Scientifically, a transparent solar panel is something of an oxymoron. Solar cells, specifically the photovoltaic kind, make energy by absorbing photons (sunlight) and converting them into electrons (electricity). If a material is transparent, however, by definition it means that all of the light passes through the medium to strike the back of your eye. This is why previous transparent solar cells have actually only been partially transparent — and, to add insult to injury, they usually they cast a colorful shadow too.

To get around this limitation, the Michigan State researchers use a slightly different technique for gathering sunlight. Instead of trying to create a transparent photovoltaic cell (which is nigh impossible), they use a transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC). The TLSC consists of organic salts that absorb specific non-visible wavelengths of ultraviolet and infrared light, which they then luminesce (glow) as another wavelength of infrared light (also non-visible). This emitted infrared light is guided to the edge of plastic, where thin strips of conventional photovoltaic solar cell convert it into electricity.

If you look closely, you can see a couple of black strips along the edges of plastic block. Otherwise, though, the active organic material — and thus the bulk of the solar panel — is highly transparent. (Read: Solar singlet fission bends the laws of physics to boost solar power efficiency by 30%.)

The organic salts absorb UV and infrared, and emit infrared — processes that occur outside of the visible spectrum, so that it appears transparent.

Michigan’s TLSC currently has an efficiency of around 1%, but they think 5% should be possible. Non-transparent luminescent concentrators (which bathe the room in colorful light) max out at around 7%. On their own these aren’t huge figures, but on a larger scale — every window in a house or office block — the numbers quickly add up. Likewise, while we’re probably not talking about a technology that can keep your smartphone or tablet running indefinitely, replacing your device’s display with a TLSC could net you a few more minutes or hours of usage on a single battery charge.

The researchers are confident that the technology can be scaled all the way from large industrial and commercial applications, down to consumer devices, while remaining “affordable.” So far, one of the larger barriers to large-scale adoption of solar power is the intrusive and ugly nature of solar panels — obviously, if we can produce large amounts of solar power from sheets of glass and plastic that look like normal sheets of glass and plastic, then that would be big.

Solar Panel Cleaning

Sunny outlook: solar cells are being improved in order to harvest energy more efficiently.

Solar Panel Maintenance Opportunities: Solar Panels are exposed to the environment – sun, wind, dust, rain etc. Solar panels are very similar to windows, lying flat or at a slight angle which means they get dirty very fast. Pollen, bird droppings, dirt, and dust can build up on solar panels.“Solar Clouding” commonly referred by the panel manufacturers, which means dirty panels and needs to be cleaned on a regular schedule in order to keep them producing at full capacity. There is a 10-15% decrease in solar output when solar panels are dirty.

Solar panels generally require very little maintenance. A few times a year, the panels should be inspected for any dirt or debris that may collect on them. Most manufacturers recommend the cleaning of solar panels every six months. Typically they should be cleaned in March/April when the rainy season has passed and August/September, towards the end of summer. The cleaning services are a necessary part of the system maintenance and also to maintain its warranty.

Having the PhotoVoltaic system cleaned will:

• Maintain your investment
• Ensure peak performance
• Extend the life of your product
• Maintain product warranty.

How to Clean Solar Panels: One can use a garden hose to wash the face of the panels during either the early morning or in the evening. Care should be taken not to spray cold water onto hot panels or there could be a risk of cracking them. There are also automated cleaners, which can be programmed to clean the panels as needed - a good choice if you are in an especially dusty area. Professional solar panel cleaners are also in abundance and can come out periodically to clean them.

Generally the solar panels are dusted gently and then washed using a soft wash brush to lightly scrub the dirt off. One should check with the solar panel manufacturer to know the best way to clean your solar panels. Hard water should not be used for the cleaning. Also check if there is any blockage from the sun like trees or plants. Clean solar panels are worth the effort.

Checking Solar Panel Operation: The only other part of solar panel maintenance is monitoring their energy output and ensuring there are no malfunctions. Check and log the power output on the solar inverters display on a daily or monthly basis. With this data, one can check to see if solar panels are functioning at full efficiency.  Solar panels produce different amounts of power during the year, so keeping a baseline measurement helps.

Solar Panel Maintenance and Cleaning Companies:

1) GR3 Solar – is a leading solar panel maintenance company throughout the UK, which specializes in the maintenance, repair and upgrades of solar panel installations. The solar maintenance packages can be customized to suit any organizational size, demand and need, whether small business, corporate or public institution or body. It provides services like Solar panel repair, maintenance, upgradation, cleaning, roof vent repairs, photovoltaic repairs, solar panel servicing. GR3 Solar covers both commercial and domestic markets, helping to reach solar panels which are often difficult and dangerous to access for homeowners or building managers. Cracks, breaks, loose connections can be rectified and upgraded, where they have become out-dated. The company’s Health & Safety procedures are constantly reviewed and upgraded and are accredited by CHAS, SAFE contractor and Constructionline.

2) Solar Clean – is a professional solar panel cleaning company. The latest unique & environmental-friendly reach-and-wash cleaning system is used, which ensures perfect cleaning results and is safe for the solar panels. The  system uses approx. 1.5  litres of water per minute. At Solar Clean, services are available to clean all residential, business and corporate solar systems in South Australia. Residential cleaning costs start from as little as $6 a panel, subject to site inspection.

3) Solar Maid – is a leading provider of solar panel washing service, cleaning and maintenance and global solar O&M provider. The company provides residential, commercial and governmental solar panel washing service. Solar Maid was the first company to provide “Janitorial Solar O&M” and is still by far the largest worldwide. Solar Maid sets industry standards for this new service sector. Solar Maid has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA with service offices throughout North America and parts of Europe.

4) Solar King - A national company with over 10 years experience Solar King is a leading supplier and installer of Solar PV, Solar Thermal & Ground & Heat Source energy systems for domestic, industrial, and commercial projects across the UK. The services provided are – supply, design, installation, commissioning, handover, maintenance, upgrades and repairs to various microgeneration technologies (Solar Thermal, Heat Pumps, Solar Photovoltaic) to commercial and domestic customers. Solar Power systems that are managed by Solar King can be up to 30% more efficient.

5) Solar Shine – is a professional solar panel cleaning company, using 100% biodegradable cleaning products that are safe for the photovoltaic system and the environment. There are many cleaning packages to choose from. Commercial and residential cleaning are available. Solar Shine offers a cleaning maintenance service, to remove the build up of debris on the surface of  photovoltaic modules.

6) Spectrum Solar – is an Australian owned company. The company is engaged in delivering high end electronic solutions to homes and businesses, for the past 35 years.  The company has installed thousands of solar power systems, in homes, businesses and schools. Spectrum Solar identifies emerging problems like shading, scaling and leaf build up & its scheduled inspection & cleaning service consists of physical inspection, panel cleaning & performance check. The panels are cleaned with purified water and no detergents or chemicals are used.

7) Fortress Complete Cleaning – Founded in Melbourne, is the culmination of over 15 years in the cleaning and maintenance industry. It provides all the equipments to access and clean the panels & cleans the panels using the most appropriate cleaning method for the job, inspects the condition of the frames and mounts & panels and records the output of the system before & after cleaning and finally provides a report on the spot for client’s reference. Solar Panel cleaning starts from 7$ per panel subject to site inspection.

8) Solar Service WA – is a WA owned business who services all of the Perth area. Solar Service WA is fully accredited to the Clean Energy Council. The company is specialized to handle Perth specific problems – like dealing with hard water stains. Water Filtration and De-Ionization equipments are used to make the panels stain free. There are no harsh chemicals used in cleaning the panels and all equipments used are the latest environmental-friendly reach-and-wash cleaning technology, which ensures perfect cleaning results and scratch free brush ensuring crystal clear panels.

9) Watson Window Washing - are currently serving all commercial systems in Southern California and all utility sized systems in California and Arizona. They are  pioneers of the commercial solar panel industry for over 5 years & their completed jobs range from small 350kw rooftop systems to 15mw ground mount utility systems. The company uses super purified water that contains no chemicals or detergents, hence there is no sticky residue left on the solar panels. Therefore, there is nothing for the dust to stick to and they will stay clean up to 10x longer. The solar panels cannot much pressure on them. Hence, long telescopic poles with soft brush heads are used to safely maintain the solar panels, while not applying much pressure. They use a method that does not quickly lower the temperature of the panels otherwise the panels would break.

Cost Involved in  Cleaning & Maintaining Solar Panels

The cost of cleaning a residential solar panel depends upon:

• Location of the Building
• Number of Panels
• Location of panels on the Premises
• Availability of water.

Invisible Solar Panels Will Replace Glass

“Invisible” Solar Panels are on the Way - Window gazers of the future may soon find themselves looking right through an energy-producing transparent glass solar panel, if the folks at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are on the right track. Working with the company New Energy Technologies, Inc., the lab has produced a transparent photovoltaic module that is 14 times bigger than its last attempt.

Windows that double as solar panels:

At 170 square centimeters (about 26 square inches), the new module is about the size of a small window. If the technology can be ramped up to a more useful scale, practically any glass window could double as a clean energy generator, with the embedded photovoltaic cell all but invisible. The largest device of its kind produced at NREL, the new module represents a breakthrough in organic photovoltaic cell (OPV) technology according to a statement by Dr. David S. Ginley of NREL, who said that integrating solar technology into window glass represents a “promising avenue for OPV deployment.”

Organic photovoltaic technology set to rise:

In contrast to conventional solar technology based on silicon, OPV cells can be made from a variety of inexpensive polymers (plastics), which can be produced in liquid form and sprayed onto a substrate, or applied using a high volume, inexpensive roll-to-roll manufacturing process. The two sticking main sticking points so far have been increasing the size of the solar module, and increasing its efficiency. The solar energy conversion efficiency of other solar technologies has been trending up in the double digits but OPV efficiency is currently stuck around eight percent according to NREL.

Though OPV is starting from a lowly place on the conversion efficiency totem pole, its potential for building-integrated usage puts it in a strong position in the solar industry. The relatively low conversion rate could be counterbalanced by the potential for extremely low installation costs compared to other solar technologies. See-through glass solar panels could simply be substituted for conventional window glass at a marginal increase in cost, rather than being treated as an expensive add-on.

A place in the sun(shot) for OPV:

Lowering the overall installed cost of solar power is a primary goal of President Obama’s SunShot Initiative, which aims to make solar energy compete on price against fossil fuels within the next few years. That partly explains why NREL is so gung-ho on OPV technology despite its low efficiency. It should be noted, though, that the focus on OPV predates the Obama Administration. OPV was part of the Solar America initiative under the Bush Administration. Despite a conversion efficiency of only five percent at the time, a 2007 Department of Energy draft report identified some key benefits of developing OPV technology, including “the inherent low materials cost and low-energy, high-throughput processing technologies, and because of the huge variety of possible organic systems.”

OPV and American-made energy:

Another aspect of NREL’s interest in OPV has to do with reliability and stability of price and supply, which are key elements in President Obama’s broader “American-made energy” pitch. The use of a variety of polymers would enable the U.S. solar industry to overcome a major obstacle that derives from reliance on silicon-based solar technology, and that is the price fluctuation of a single key material – silicon – on the open market.

According to a report last week in Bloomberg News, China, which it describes as the “biggest supplier to solar-panel manufacturers worldwide,” has shut down almost a third of its polysilicon production after prices fell by 60 percent, a move that is expected to result in a quick return to higher prices. However, it’s too soon to say good-bye to silicon forever. NREL is also working with another small company, Innovalight, to develop solar modules based on a low cost, nano-engineered spray-on liquid silicon process.

Also check out:

New Thin Film Material Promises Power Generating Windows.

New Transparent Thin Film Solar Material Could Turn Windows into Solar Power Generators.

Government Scientists Put See-Through Solar Windows on the Fast Track.

Top 10 Solar Technologies to Watch Out For.

Solar Power Graphs to Make You Smile.

Solar Ivy - "Nothing A Window Cleaner Couldn't Clean"

Solar technology joins the ivy league with novel PV concept: The first project using a potentially revolutionary new building-integrated solar-power concept designed to mimic the appearance of ivy leaves is on track for switch-on at the University of Utah this autumn.

Developed by New York-based Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology (Smit), the Solar Ivy technology, which is made up of bespoke PV panel “leaves” wired through an inverter into a grid-connected system, will be used to construct a 74-square-metre installation with a nameplate capacity of 3.5kW. The $42,000 pilot, now in the schematic design phase, stemmed from the university’s Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund, a student-led scheme to finance campus projects that have a positive environmental impact and help educate the student body in developing “earth-conscious” habits.

“We have developed Solar Ivy to have a range of customisable attributes that we can use to tune the system for the location of the install or in terms of the environmental constraints — shading or other obstacles that might affect the light,” states Smit chief executive Samuel Cochran. “But we can also tailor it to use different types of PV to make the most of the quality of light the system will be converting into electricity.”

The Solar Ivy concept has been devised to be “technology agnostic”, meaning it can be fashioned around organic, amorphous silicon or copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) PV, generating up to four watts per leaf. For the University of Utah project, CIGS was chosen as having the highest power density, with an expected efficiency of better than 10%.

“For our purposes [at the university], we have opted for CIGS, but the system is designed so that we can adapt it to new PV technologies as they become available,” notes Cochran. “We are really excited about the ongoing development of organic PV, for instance, in terms of its smaller carbon footprint, and some of the transparent and printed PV technologies that are under development.”

The leaf structure of Solar Ivy is made of UV-stable plastics, meaning the foliage can be fabricated in any colour or opacity, although they cannot “yet” change with the season. Smit has developed a proprietary three-dimensional software package to go with the Solar Ivy that can model a spectrum of environmental and design variables to determine “how a Solar Ivy system would react to sunlight at a given location”, switching out different types of PV panels to optimise an installation’s output.

“This software allows us to...understand how much solar radiation will be hitting each one of the Solar Ivy leaves,” says Cochran. “And this allows us to adjust the angle and density of leaves making up an installation.” The software feeds final project-specific design details to the manufacturers contracted by Smit to fabricate the Solar Ivy. The company has a number of “established” relationships with suppliers but declines to name the companies until the first installation is up and running.

The installation technology under the Solar Ivy leaves is ingenious in its own right. Smit is employing a flexible, “fishnet-like” stainless steel mesh that attaches to an assembly of perimeter cables and mounting anchors that are fixed to the wall of a building. The mesh can also be worked into self-supporting tensile architectural forms — saddle shapes, tents or the like — with Smit’s software then applying its efficiency-optimising modelling equations to tune and orientate the Solar Ivy leaves in line with these curved surfaces. “This allows us to build nonplanar [non-flat] base structures on which we can populate the leaves at optimal angles to get the maximum exposure to the Sun,” says Cochran.

Once fabricated, a Solar Ivy installation can be collapsed to fit into a shipping container for transport to site, then expanded and installed. For new buildings, the array could be integrated into the architectural design, with allowance made for anchor points, whereas for an existing building — such as at the University of Utah where installation is expected to take “at most a week” — metal brackets can be driven into the exterior walls to support the mesh structure “out of the box”.

An accelerated life-cycle testing programme is under way at the University of Sheffield in the UK to flesh out the operational longevity of the Solar Ivy concept. Smit currently offers a warranty that matches that of the panel-makers supplying the PV leaves, with all componentry manufactured to US military specifications. “As the guarantees of our suppliers improve we’ll be able to pass those along to our customers,” notes Cochran.

Servicing of the Solar Ivy is expected to be “minimal”. Smit is exploring a range of encapsulations and water-repelling coatings to reduce maintenance further. “An occasional rinse if you are in a dusty environment would do it — nothing a window washer couldn’t do,” says Cochran. Given the extreme weather common in Utah’s summers and winters, the coming installation is forecast to be a “thorough” test of the technology’s robustness.

Beyond a number of project proposals pending at different locations in the US, Smit is also pursuing developments in India and Europe, after the recent closing of a breakthrough round of venture-capital investment. International roll-out of Solar Ivy is planned for “the next few years”.

And here's the stuff to clean it with..

Glass Gleam Solar Panel Cleaner By Titan Labs

With properties similar to Glass Gleam 4, but with features more suited for cleaning panels & increasing photovoltaic efficiency. (less slip, more detergent, and highly concentrated). This concentrated solution is fast becoming one of the most effective solar cleaner in the market.

Product Description:

 

* Will not harm glass panels, plastics, or metals.

* Balanced pH. Kind to hands.

* Will not harm glass panels, plastics, or metals

* Balanced pH. Kind to hands

* Environmentally friendly super-concentrate

* Superb results for all glazed panels and solar cells

* Restores photovoltaic efficiency

* 1/4 Fl. Oz. per gallon of water.

* Rinse, power jet or squeegee.