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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: More efficient spray-on solar power window Last week, New Energy Technologies Inc. showed its technology that enables glass to generate electricity through spray-on solar PV to investors and members of the media. The technology, which is called the SolarWindow, aims to provide solar energy to building facades by spraying an electricity-generating coating on to glass. During the demonstration, the researchers compared the cost of the SolarWindow technology to traditional rooftop solar systems saying that the SolarWindow technology provides up to three times more savings in electricity costs. According to a press release, engineers modeled a 40-story building, similar to Tampa’s landmark 100 North Tampa, as an example. They estimated an annual cost-savings of $40,000 to $70,000 when installing New Energy’s SolarWindow to exposed window facades, which they contrasted with a polycrystalline silicon module installation on the rooftop that would produce $20,000 in energy savings per year. “I’m eager to aggressively advance this technology towards commercial prototyping in preparation for eventual full-scale production to capitalize on our market of more than five million commercial buildings and 80 million detached homes in America,” said president and CEO, John A. Conklin. The company expects to publish comprehensive performance data in upcoming weeks, following independent, third-party measurement and engineering validation. The all-important numbers such as installed cost and efficiency were not discussed. Comments: Anonymous September 24, 2010 Tch tch. Once again we see a picture of a transparent solar cell -- when are we going to learn? You can only get energy by absorbing sunlight; consequently, an efficient solar cell should be essentially black. Non-visible light could be selectively absorbed except that a lot of UV in sunlight doesn't get through ordinary window glass and the infrared solar spectrum is relatively low energy. Even then, for comercial buildings you'd have to replace the integral sun blocking film with the PV material otherwise very little UV or IR would be getting to the cells. They imply something like twice the efficiency of monocrystalline cells i.e. >35% which goes beyond improbable since the cell depicted appears to be transmitting more than 65% of the incident light (note the picture is taken against a backdrop, consequently, light has to have passed through twice and yet the backdrop is barely obscured). The bottom line is either you capture light and turn it into current - in which case your cell looks dark - or you don't. The usefulness of producing electricity from artificial light seems pretty sketchy. There is the weak case that bifacial windows would reduce the amount of energy escaping from a building as light from interior lighting but the relatively low light levels compared to sunlight would make this very marginal. Also, one could just as easily increase the reflectance of windows to improve the net efficiency of interior lighting. You've also got to question the apples and oranges comparison of conventional solar on the roof versus something else on the building facade. Does a tall building have more available wall space than roof space? of course it does -- there's even enough of a difference that a south facing facade can produce more power than the roof despite the non-optimized tilt (with the possible exception of Siberia) although at a higher $/kWh cost. No high-rises to the south please! richcat November 7, 2010 Leading Solar Testing Agency Confirms New Energy's Power Output for its SolarWindow™ See-thru spray-on technology turns ordinary glass surfaces into electricity-generating SolarWindows™, able to outperform rooftop solar by 300%. Burtonsville, MD – November 1, 2010 – New Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: NENE) announced today that Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a leading American certification and testing laboratory for solar products and equipment, has validated the Company's power production modeling calculations for its novel, SolarWindow™ technology. SolarWindow™ is the first-of-its-kind see-thru glass window capable of generating electricity, and able to outperform conventional rooftop solar module installations by more than 300% when applied to the facades of commercial tall buildings and skyscrapers. Engineers modeling a 40-story building, similar to Tampa's landmark "100 North Tampa," estimate annual cost-savings of $40,000 to $70,000 when installing New Energy's SolarWindow™ to exposed window facades. In contrast, mounting today's popular poly-crystalline silicon modules rack-mounted on the rooftop produces only $20,000 in energy savings per year. "We have long anticipated that applying SolarWindow™ to exterior glass surfaces of commercial towers could generate energy savings several-fold greater than today's rooftop solar systems," explained Mr. John A. Conklin, President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc. "It's wonderful to have these power modeling calculations now validated by FSEC, a highly-respected independent solar testing agency.
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#5. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
I think this technology is heavily subsidized, and the analysis they quote above reflects that. without the subsidies it is very uneconomical. and it will affect the quality of the window, for what is very little savings in reality, and what little savings will be completely due to the subsidy. High quality windows on high-rises can be very expensive. You don't want to cheapen them like this. I think that the clique who rules our country has shown us that they believe in manipulating government's policies to bring about financial suicide for us. they've kept the dollar too expensive for our domestic economy to be anything but dysfunctional. they're spending wildly out of control. their tax policies are giving away money mostly to rich people. fantastic debts where half the government spending is routinely financed by borrowing. and we're told this is management of the situation. this is management for the sake of financial suicide. and it is no different with the solar technology that is heavily subsidized. about 75% of the real cost is paid for by subsidies at one level or another. On top of that utilities are mandated to mix solar electricity into their mix which simply raises their real costs and causes all electricity to be priced higher. If we wanted to cut the electricity costs for cooling, then here is the strategy that would work. we can circulate water down under the ground into water-tanks and cool the water under-ground, then use the cooler water to cool the building. Low-tech. just circulate water over the roof or over the windows/walls if you want to go all out. From a practical point of view on a 1 or 2 story building if you just circulate water over the roof, you cool the building. because 80% of the heating load will be the roof on a 1-story building. we could save a ton of electricity with this strategy.
Air conditioning/cooling houses is a bit of a scam. In cold or temperate climates what you really need, primarily for energy savings, is a large, well-insulated structure: R-10 extruded Styrofoam on the outside of basement walls, protected by treated plywood, R-40 walls, (two walls six inches apart, all filled with fiberglass) and an R-60 ceiling, and preferably a continuous vapor barrier. Then include R-10 Styrofoam sliding shutters in "pockets" at doors and windows (in the six-inch space between the two 2x4 walls). Put as much high-density mass inside the house like those huge Russian, German or preferably Finish masonry fireplaces, books, cast iron tubs and basins and you'll have a kind of heat storage battery which, through thermal lag will keep the temperature quite constant. The only reason to have water pipes under the basement slab would be to get solar-heated water to keep the basement warm. With solar gain from curtain wall greenhouse windows and a barrel wood stove I was able to keep a 2,000 sq ft, two story house with these features warm enough for tropical plants to survive.
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