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'."

what about the dark?

[jr87]

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

A useful general power solution too

[ReyTFox]

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.

Just what I need

[Anonymous Coward]

to power my flying car. Seriously, are we to believe that they are producing solar cells aproaching 100%efficiency in converting sunlight to energy, when the one's they use in our spy satellites only approach 35% ? I hope it is true , but seems like it could just be a publicity stunt fishing for venture capital. I mean it is alot easier to raise money once you get your story published in the mainstream media.

Amazing

[rritterson]

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?

Re:Translucent?

[YouHaveSnail]

Both. Take a look at the pictures [wired.com] 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.

Vaporware

[acvolt]

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.

Id like to see some proff of these cells.

[sjwt]

If they have the technogy for these suposed
"Dyson is confident her team's solar cells can reach nearly 100 percent efficiency"
why are they limiting it to some silly
window apllication, the cells on there
ones are worth a fortune even at
"more than 50 percent"

I meen we are talking massive incress
from the current "super high levels"
of around 3x%..
http://www.you.com.au/news/1958.htm

Perhaps they are misinterpting the
results becasue of the " focusing them into the small silicon squares, also called solar chips"

maybe the failed to take into account
that if you focuse light onto a cell,
it dosent have a higher output because
its more efficnt, but rather becuase it
has more sunlight on it.

Solar Office

[JWSmythe]

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 [heatsink-guide.com] 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.

Fritted Glass

[aaarrrgggh]

The idea isn't that different from Fritted Glass, where you have ceramic paint on the window to reflect some light and reduce the solar heat load (or just for privacy). Any glare on the screen is bad, and makes it difficult to focus; the pattern might make it slightly more manageable.

I think the scale of the cells shown in the renderings is a bit off; you would actually get more usuable surface area with "dots" rather than "small panels", and it would be MUCH less obtrusive.