Transparent solar windows

 From CleanTechnica

More than 20 billion square feet of windows are installed every year, and the leading firm Andersen Corporation apparently plans to make some of those billions into energy efficient, transparent solar energy generators that could kick the pace of global energy decarbonization into high gear. The well-known maker of windows and doors just chipped in for a $30 million Series B funding round that will help push the not-so-well-known transparent solar innovator Ubiquitous Energy out of the startup shadows and into the bright sunshine of the global building industries marketplace.

The idea of transforming windows into fully transparent, see-through PV powerhouses has allured researchers for years. Conventional solar panels block the sun, so that’s out. Thin film PV technology offers an alternative route, but the problem is squeezing out enough clean kilowatts to make the endeavor worthwhile. Thin film is transparent, but overall the technology is not as efficient as conventional photovoltaic panels.

Ubiquitous Energy appears to have solved the riddle with its proprietary transparent solar UE Power™ technology. The key breakthrough is a formula that enables visible light to pass through, while reserving invisible light at both ends of the spectrum to generate electricity.

The company has been hammering away in the lab for the past 10 years and it finally sailed onto the CleanTechnica radar last November, after it installed 100 square feet of its new transparent solar panels above the main entrance to the building of the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building at Michigan State University.

That MSU project is small potatoes compared to 20 billion square feet, but it was enough to get the attention of Andersen Corporation. The 115-year-old firm is known more for its attention to style, but building decor is not the whole story. Energy efficiency is also a focus of innovation at the company, and energy efficiency is the unsung hero of the decarbonization movement.

All of this means that fossil energy stakeholders could lose their grip on the global economy more quickly than expected. Ubiquitous Energy doesn’t expect that windows can get the job done alone, but they will function alongside other clean energy solutions to push carbon out of the picture.

Some fossil stakeholders are catching on faster than others. So far the pace has been far too slow, but legacy firms like Shell (wind energy and green hydrogen) and BP (solar energy) and have been getting in position to take it to the next level — as soon as government policy makers decide to get serious about climate action, that is

That brings us to another participant in the $30 million round for Ubiquitous Energy, the Japanese firm ENEOS. Last August, ENEOS worked with Nippon Sheet Glass to install the transparent solar windows at an NSG facility in Chiba. The plan was for the installation to undergo a one-year evaluation ending in August 2022, but it seems that ENEOS has seen enough to take the plunge.

ENEOS is the biggest oil company in Japan and it also has a heavy hand in the natural gas and petrochemical business, but it also has a large and growing portfolio of utility scale PV power plants under its belt. The hookup with Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar panels at the NSG facility hints that ENEOS is looking at a whole ‘nother market, as industrial firms seek to decarbonize their facilities.

The bigger picture is a flipping of the script for the building industry. Historically, the nature of a building is to suck up energy and spit out carbon. Solar technology provides a pathway for buildings to produce their own carbon free energy. Rooftop PV panels are already mainstream, and now windows can contribute to the building-as-power-plant trend.

Last November, a new study that modeled solar adoption in Melbourne, Australia caused quite a stir when it described how “comprehensive adoption of existing rooftop PV technology alone throughout the city could radically transform Melbourne’s carbon footprint, significantly reducing its reliance on grid electricity generated by burning fossil fuels,” and that “further gains could be made through the widespread deployment of emerging, highly efficient ‘solar windows’ and photovoltaic technology integrated in building facades.”

According to the study, buildings in Melbourne could provide for 74% of their own electricity when fully decked out with rooftop and window PV, along with other energy efficiency measures.

This transparent solar window just leaped from startup status to mainstream market with an assist from the leading window maker Andersen Corporation (video screenshot courtesy of MSU).