Windows could generate solar energy

Oct. 11, 2012
Courtesy of the American Chemical Society
and World Science staff

A new type of trans­par­ent so­lar cell is a step to­ward mak­ing win­dows able to gen­er­ate elec­tri­city while still let­ting peo­ple to see out­side, re­search­ers say.

The re­search­ers, with the Cal­i­for­nia NanoSys­tems In­sti­tute and the Uni­vers­ity of Cal­i­for­nia, Los An­ge­les, say there has been in­tense world-wide in­ter­est in so-called pol­y­mer so­lar cells, which are made from plas­tic-like ma­te­ri­als. A so­lar cell is a de­vice that con­verts the sun’s en­er­gy in­to elec­tric cur­rent.

Pol­y­mer so­lar cells are light­weight, flex­i­ble and can be pro­duced in high vol­ume cheap­ly, ac­cord­ing to the sci­en­tists. Re­search­ers al­so have been in­ter­ested in mak­ing them trans­par­ent, but pre­vi­ous trans­par­ent de­signs have had many dis­ad­van­tages, which the team set out to cor­rect.

The sci­en­tists de­scribe a new kind of flat, pol­y­mer so­lar cell that they’ve de­vel­oped that pro­duces en­er­gy by ab­sorb­ing mainly in­fra­red light, not vis­i­ble light, mak­ing the cells 66 per­cent trans­par­ent to the eye. They made the de­vice from a pho­to­ac­tive plas­tic that con­verts in­fra­red light in­to an elec­trical cur­rent.

An­oth­er break­through is the trans­par­ent con­duc­tor, which re­places the opaque met­al elec­trode used in the past, the re­search­ers say, sug­gest­ing the pan­els could be used in win­dows or porta­ble elec­tron­ics.