Have you ever imagined a window that generates electricity? A startup from the United States believes it can develop technology capable of doing this. Ubiquitous Energy, located in California, has produced transparent solar cells to create a type of “solar glass” that can transform sunlight into energy by working like solar s.
“It can be applied, for example, to the windows of skyscrapers, car glass and iPhone glass,” said Miles Barr, founder and chief technology officer of Ubiquitous Energy, in an interview with CNN Business.
According to Barr, “solar windows” can produce up to two-thirds of the energy that traditional s produce. “It is a technology that comes to complement, not to replace, existing ones. Combining the two methods can bring the net energy consumption of large buildings to zero,” she explained.
Ubiquitous Energy hopes to use this technology to turn virtually any ordinary glass surface into a solar cell. The expectation is that manufacturing of the products will begin in the next two years.
About the product
The core of the product is an organic dye, used to coat glass surfaces. The tint allows visible sunlight to through, like normal windows, but captures the invisible infrared rays of that light.
“Light-absorbing dyes are found all around us. They are in paints, in clothing pigments and even in electronic devices,” Barr said. “What we did was design these dyes to selectively absorb infrared light and also convert it into electricity,” he concluded.
