Window panes to act as transparent solar panels

The brilliance of MIT brings out another spectacular scientific invention. If all goes according the plan, then within the next decade, we will be generating electricity from our window panes. And that too, without obstructing the visibility of the glass windows. Since most of the offices and buildings are now covered with glass finishings, thanks to the latest construction methodology, there would be plenty of opportunities for electricity generation, according to the researchers of MIT.

The technology used here is pretty simple and is also known to people with basic background of physics. A photo voltaic cell is incorporated into the glass pane and this cell has a special ability of harnessing the infrared light that falls on it, and it lets the visible light to pass through it without any absorptions. Now the infrared light will be absorbed, and will be converted into electricity. This will heavily reduce the cost of installation of complex circuit which are responsible for lighting up our rooms. Instead of installing heavy and complex electrical circuit for a simple requirements such as lighting a few bulbs in a room, it seems sane enough to use this window powerplant technology, which has of late caused a revolution in the world of science and technology

This astonishing idea is a result of a paper from two eminent researchers, Bulović and Lunt from MIT, who produced a research paper on this technology described the idea and its uses in the coming future. The paper became very famous and also received positive remarks from the scientific world, when it was published in the online journal, Applied Physics Letters. Though previous attempts on similar use of technology to produce electricity from light have either failed or received low attention due to lack of efficiency, this time around, the duo from MIT have found the perfect chemical formulation in order to make the process simpler and more efficient. They have combined this chemical with partial infrared reflection coatings. On this note, Bulović says,

A large fraction of the cost could be eliminated compared to today’s solar installations.

Though their work is still in the budding stage, reaching an efficiency of 1.7 percent, researchers expect this to raise to 12 percent very soon. Work is being done in bringing this technology to the real world and make it useful to everyone under the sun.
Experts say that the technology is very good if projected far into the future, but only if the efficiency can be improved to a great extent. The financial assistance required for the project was provided by the Center for Excitonics which is an energy frontier research center.

http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/window-panes-to-act-as-transparent-solar-panels/