Transparent Solar Panels: Reforming Future Energy Supply

 

What are transparent solar panels?

Photovoltaic glass is probably the most cutting-edge new solar panel technology that promises to be a game-changer in expanding the scope of solar.  These are transparent solar panels that can literally generate electricity from windows—in offices, homes, car’s sunroof, or even smartphones. Blinds are another part of a building’s window that can generate electricity (we will discuss it in a later section).

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) originally created the first fully transparent solar concentrator in 2014. This clear solar panel could turn virtually any glass sheet or window into a PV cell. By 2020, the researchers in the U.S. and Europe have already achieved full transparency for the solar glass.

These transparent solar panels can be easily deployed in a variety of settings, ranging from skyscrapers with large windows to a mobile device such as a phone, a laptop, or an e-reader. As these solar power windows can simply replace the traditional glass windows in offices and homes, the technology holds the potential to virtually turn every building in the United States and the world into a solar producer.

Fully Transparent Solar Panels

Although partially transparent solar panels are suitable for the previously mentioned cases, they are not perfectly suitable for clear windows or touchscreens. A breakthrough achieved by the Michigan State University where scientists produced a fully transparent solar panel that resembles normal glass could however fulfil this need.

The fully transparent solar panel may by definition not absorb visible sunlight. However, researchers at Michigan State University used organic salts that absorb specific invisible wavelengths of light, such as ultraviolet light. This light is then transformed and the material of the panel moves it to its edges, where stripes of photovoltaic solar cells convert it into electricity.

The efficiency of the fully transparent solar panels is currently about 1% with an estimated potential of 5%. Compared to the average efficiency of 15% for conventional solar panels, efficiencies of 5% and 7.2% for the fully and partially transparent panels respectively are still quite low.

                                                                

However, solar panel efficiency does not mean everything. In practice it only means that the less efficient panel needs to be larger than the more efficient one in order to produce the same amount of electricity. As transparent solar panels can be integrated into windows in buildings, it means that the lower efficiency is overcompensated by the potential areas of employment.

There is still a long way to go before transparent solar panels become reality, but if the innovations introduced in this article can be scaled and produced more cheaply, then the seemingly far-away dream of a 'solar-powered future' is not so far away.

How do solar panel windows work?

A transparent solar panel is essentially a counterintuitive idea because solar cells must absorb sunlight (photons) and convert them into power (electrons). When a solar glass is transparent, the sunlight will pass through the medium and defeat the purpose of utilizing sunlight. However, this new solar panel technology is changing the way solar cells absorb light.

The cell selectively harnesses a portion of the solar spectrum that is invisible to the naked eye, while allowing the normal visible light to pass through. To achieve this technological wonder, the researchers have developed the transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) rather than trying to do the impossible by creating a transparent photovoltaic glass cell.