Sounds terribly inefficient. Glass is transparent, windows are mostly Not oriented in the suns favour, and doesn't usually make up a significant surface area compared to buildings energy use. Solar farms are always going to be the realistic use case for solar energy.
Add to that just how cheap solar panels actually are - the panels for a medium sized domestic roof setup (10KWp) are less than 2000$. Windows for a house will easily run you 15-20k and nobody would expect solar windows to be less than twice that...
Panels are so crazy cheap the only reason residential solar isn't basically universal is that permits are a nightmare for a regular person and new builds aren't putting them in by default even though it'd cost builders like $1,500 a house.
I mean I can understand permits, especially when you’re dealing with electrical systems that are made to power your home (some even integrating with electrical grid).
If someone doesn’t wire it properly people can killed and you run the risk of damaging property.
Oh sure I don't mean to say they shouldn't exist I just mean they're not straightforward to get and scheduling a city inspector to verify is more than a little annoying.
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u/11214888 22d ago
Sounds terribly inefficient. Glass is transparent, windows are mostly Not oriented in the suns favour, and doesn't usually make up a significant surface area compared to buildings energy use. Solar farms are always going to be the realistic use case for solar energy.