SolarWindow Technologies, a developer of transparent electricity-generating coatings for commercial windows on skyscrapers and tall towers, has successfully developed invisible wires that are as thin as human hair for improved transmission of electricity from the surface of its power-generating glass. The early, first generation, invisible wire microgrid was already the thinnest system ever developed for its SolarWindow™ technology, states the company.
“Our technology team has vowed to attempt even finer wiring grids in order to help them eventually disappear to the human eye,” said John A. Conklin, President and CEO of SolarWindow Technologies, Inc.
Today’s invisible microgrid wires are thinner than an average human hair. When applied in a grid pattern, the new, virtually invisible wire system increases power and performance while improving the visual aesthetics of SolarWindow™ systems, currently under development.
The process developed for these new virtually invisible wires is solution processable, faster, and can be applied using high speed roll-to-roll (R2R) or large area sheet-to-sheet (S2S) equipment, all compatible with the company’s SolarWindow™ module production and deployment strategy.
NREL and SolarWindow have been working through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to advance the company’s SolarWindow™ technology for generating electricity on glass windows. Dr. Scott Hammond, Principal Scientist, SolarWindow Technologies, Inc., commented, “Specifically, our work in collaboration with Dr. Maikel van Hest, Senior Scientist, and Talysa Stockert, Research Associate, at NREL, has led to today’s technology advancement.”
SolarWindow™ modules are designed as transparent glass windows for installation on tall towers and skyscrapers. SolarWindow™ modeling shows that modules achieve the industry’s fastest published financial payback of less than one year as validated by a team of independent engineers and at the University of North Carolina Charlotte Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (UNCC-EPIC).