SPRAY-ON SOLAR

"Spray On" Window Solar Panels
August 19, 2010 (Energy Matters)

"…[R]esearchers are making headway into creating compounds that could easily be applied to window glass to turn them into semi-transparent solar panels.

"Norwegian company EnSol AS is working with experts in the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy to develop its patented solar cell material that could be applied as a thin film on windows to harness solar power on a large scale."

Schematic of the concept (click to enlarge)

"While some light would need to be absorbed in order to generate power, the windows would only have slight tinting, a desirable attribute in many buildings with windows exposed to the sun. The material could also form part of a building's walls or as clip-together solar roof tiles."

Solar windows are already available as part of the development of Building-Integrated PV but EnSol wants to make it more widely accessible. (click to enlarge)

"The material is composed of metal nanoparticles embedded in a transparent composite matrix…[EnSol AS has demonstrated the solar cell concept] and further development efforts are aiming to achieve a cell efficiency of 20% or greater.

"Current experimentation will produce solar cells with an active area in excess of 16 cm2 deposited onto standard glass substrates…"