Transparent solar cells that could power skyscrapers

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in hardware on (#WX4Z)
story imageResearch has boosted solar panel efficiency over time. But some scientists argue that to truly take advantage of the sun's power, we also need to expand the amount of real estate that can be outfitted with solar, by making cells that are nearly or entirely see-through, i-e transparent cells.

A Silicon Valley start-up named "Ubiquitous Energy" has succeeded in creating such transparent solar cells. ClearView is a transparent solar cell that can coat any surface, including displays and windows, to harvest ambient light and generate electricity. Ubiquitous Energy has redesigned the solar cell to selectively transmit light visible to the human eye while absorbing only the ultraviolet and infrared light and converting it into electricity.
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That doesn't seem to mesh with their goal of completely eliminating the need for batteries in small consumer gadgets and even smart phones, as LED lighting doesn't emit ultraviolet or infrared, and there isn't always a window nearby. Still a potentially revolutionary technology in other applications, but unfortunately it's in the very, very early stages of development.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ubiquitous-energy-transparent-solar-power-timeline/

Re: You know what's even better than putting solar panels on windows? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-08 23:24 (#X35K)

Common solar panels are only 20% efficient, anyhow.
I remember, around 1990, one of my high school science teachers telling the class that once we reached 15% efficiency we would need no other power generation systems. Mind you, this was a long time ago. I imagine that - as a species - our power requirements have increased dramatically since then.
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