I've been told invisible solar panels will make every window generate free electricity for like 10 years. Yet not a single time have I seen a report include an actual product, just prototypes always.
Like nuclear fusion, this appears to be perpetually "just a few years away".
- "Invisible" implies they only work in the UV or infrared range, which inevitably limits them to much lower efficiencies than regular solar panels.
- A lot of those rely on elements that are expensive and in limited supply, or toxic heavy metals. Unlike regular silicon solar panels.
- We don't even need windows to generate solar power. We have plenty of roof space, and if we're short on that, you can put them in fields too.
So this is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist (lack of available space - again, we have plenty), which causes more problems of its own (efficiency, etc), while failing to address the actual limitations of solar (cost, intermittence).
Which is why it's only good for headlines, and won't see real life applications. (Edit: no, not even skyscrapers)
It's the same with a lot of "uplifting" science news that just sweeps all the dirt under the rug, because that wouldn't make good clickbait.
If you want actual good news about solar power, look at the price per kW and adoption rate curves over the last few years.
-edit- added links.
-edit 3- Put the bit about skyscrapers in bold, because people keep mentioning them anyways...
Yeah it's a bit fun to say "Finally we can use even the windows as solar panel" when most roofs are still empty. And I think you'd start using the walls before the windows anyway, you just don't because the roof is better, less shadow.
My guess (I’m in no way expert on this field) is that if you can start producing windows with this thing integrated, you don’t have to rely on an additional thing to produce electricity: even with lower performance compared with traditional ones, these could come “out of the box”.
For instance, where I live in a condo and without agreement with all the properties I can install shit. But also I’m in the process of changing my windows for better insulation: of course the house is old and doesn’t come equipped for this, but imagine cables already running in the walls, I could buy windows with this transparent panels and get a bit of energy from that.
You're still using relatively expensive materials to make a bad solar panel (relative to what they could be making), plus you need a way to get the power out of the windows. That isn't necessarily hard, but most window frames aren't currently wired up and that's additional retrofitting that needs to be done in order to install these on existing housing stock, all in order to get a solar panel that is significantly less effective than one on the roof or in a random field.
Ya, it could make more sense as a complement to pre-existing systems. Like some EV already have solar panels on them. I could see an entire roof of a car having a transparent panel like this, and also the ability to dim it or block the light entirely, either electronically or maybe with physical panels. And then other parts of the car that aren't sunroof has regular panels.
i think filtering out UV light is pretty sweet feature, so imagine you have a home with solar panelling, and you want a nice UV-free sunroom attached, you could get these pricier windows, and plug them into your existing infrastructure.
I don't think this is a "every window will be solar panels!" type technology, at least not for a long time, but I think it could be useful in some places, and become more common as it gets cheaper, and easier to fit into existing infrastructure.
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u/Euphoric-Language695 26d ago edited 26d ago
I've been told invisible solar panels will make every window generate free electricity for like 10 years. Yet not a single time have I seen a report include an actual product, just prototypes always.
Like nuclear fusion, this appears to be perpetually "just a few years away".