Solar cells sprayed on glass generate electricity

Researchers have developed a novel, patent-pending process for 'spraying' solar cells and their related components onto glass which could provide significant commercial production advantages over today's thin-films.

 

Once scaled-up for use in commercial-scale production, scientists at New Energy Technologies anticipate the ability to spray solar coatings directly onto their first-of-its-kind see-thru SolarWindow™, currently under development, could provide significant commercial production advantages over today's thin-films.

 

Conventional solar films are typically manufactured using expensive and slow manufacturing methods which rely on high-temperature and finicky 'vacuum deposition' processes for depositing solar materials onto substrates; the resultant products are simply too thick to allow for transparency, an important consideration in the development of a commercially viable solar-powered glass window.

 

One of the main transparency-related obstacles facing the company in developing their SolarWindow™ technology is the presence of metal, an opaque material which blocks visibility and prevents light from passing through glass. Eliminating metal has proved especially challenging since the metal component acts as the negative 'polar contact' - an important function in collecting the electricity generated from solar cells on the surface of the glass.

 

Their recent breakthrough replaces this 'visibility-blocking' metal with environmentally-friendly and more transparent compounds. These compounds now function as the negative polar contact and collect electricity from New Energy's SolarWindow™.

 

The production of solar-generated electricity on glass is made possible by the world's tiniest working solar cells measuring less than 1/4 the size of a grain of rice which are fabricated using environmentally-friendly materials.

 

Unique performance properties of New Energy's ultra-small solar cells enable development of an ultra-thin film, only 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair, or 1/10th of a micrometer. In contrast, conventional thin films are exponentially thicker, measuring several micrometers thick and inhibiting transparency. In photovoltaic applications such as see-thru windows, where transparency is a primary concern, today's thin film solar cells simply cannot be utilized to produce a transparent solar window for application in homes, offices, and commercial buildings.

 

There are nearly 5 million commercial buildings in America, according to the Energy Information Administration, and more than 80 million single detached homes. New Energy's SolarWindow™ technology is under development for commercial application in such buildings.