The dawn – if you’ll pardon the pun – of the solar window pane might just be upon us, thanks to work carried out on a spray-on technology by Norwegian solar specialist EnSol.
Although the concept of solar windows – which steal a percentage of the light that passes through them to generate small amounts of clean, renewable energy – isn’t exactly new, with concept devices having already been developed by Chinese-based Chin Hua, EnSol’s approach signals something radically new: using a vapor deposition process, the company is able to coat any surface with its new solar cells.
As explained over on GizMag, this gives the company a distinct advantage over its rivals in turning people on to home-generated power: as well as producing ‘tinted’ windows which can be used as a drop-in replacement for existing panes while generating around 2W of power in direct sunlit conditions, the company’s technology can be used to cover other surfaces in its thin-film solar cells.
As an example: imagine a building where not only do the windows generate electricity, but so do the external walls – and at a higher rate than the windows, as there’s no worry about having to transmit the majority of the light safely to the other side. Even the roof can get in on the act, with the University of Leicester’s Chris Binns – who is heading up a project to help EnSol develop commercialized versions of its technology – explaining that the system could be used to produce “clip-together solar roof tiles” to be used in place of traditional, non-generating tiles.
Like Chin Hua before it, EnSol has some way to go before it’s ready to start taking orders for solar roof tiles or self-powered electric windows: unlike its Chinese counterpart, however, the company is willing to put a date on commercial availability of 2016 – at which point the solar cells will, the company hopes, have reached an efficiency of around 20 percent.
With energy prices inexorably rising, more and more people are looking to nature to provide for their electricity needs: wind power and solar power being the two most popular for small-scale exploitation. Technologies such as this could well prove invaluable in the future – and a world where each house is equipped with energy-generating solar films on its external surfaces could generate a not-inconsiderable amount of energy in an incredibly environmentally-friendly way.
