Somebody sent me this. Looks interesting if it exists or will exist. Seems a little too fantastic, but so did the airplane and the mood ring. See what you think. ( I wonder if Unicorn horn is required to manufacture this. )
https://www.solarwindow.com/ (https://www.solarwindow.com/)
Looks interesting but I don't know anything about the possible uses other than what should be obvious. I'm a little behind because I like FIRE!
I don't know how practical their idea really is, but it shouldn't be breaking any actual laws of physics. They have solar cells in roll-up plastic sheets now. It's just those pesky practicalities like cost and how to apply it to existing glass.
One of the downsides of solar panels is they are "stand-alone" devices, which means they need space / add weight / extra cost of their supporting structure etc. So if they can make something like a window tint film that can be applied to existing glass (or even manufactured in the glass?) I can see it being possible. Angle to the sun isn't perfect, but the glass and it's supports are going to be there anyway.
I have wondered if it will be practical to make solar generating roofing sheets? So rather than building a regular roof, THEN mounting solar panels on top of it, the roofing panels ARE the solar panels. Screw them in place, connect the power leads, and you have power.
What I have read in Science magazine is that they haven't got the efficiency of panels yet and they degrade as they also change tint as the sun heats them. So that back and forth tinting apparently degrades them. It's using something called perovskites. I think the search is still on for the right material substance.
Quote from: Ianab on January 27, 2021, 05:15:23 PMI have wondered if it will be practical to make solar generating roofing sheets? So rather than building a regular roof, THEN mounting solar panels on top of it, the roofing panels ARE the solar panels. Screw them in place, connect the power leads, and you have power.
Elon Musk has a product in the works.
23 minutes in
The future we're building -- and boring | Elon Musk - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIwLWfaAg-8)
Quote from: SwampDonkey on January 27, 2021, 05:16:02 PM
What I have read in Science magazine is that they haven't got the efficiency of panels yet and they degrade as they also change tint as the sun heats them. So that back and forth tinting apparently degrades them. It's using something called perovskites. I think the search is still on for the right material substance.
That's the "practicalities" part. ;) Taking something that can be shown to work in the lab, and actually turning it into a commercial product. That's what Elon Musk does seem good at.
And like he said, new construction can employ such a roof, but there are a whole lot more roofs that won't until roofs need replacing. A decades long process to conversion. I've got galvalum on, I doubt that will ever be replaced by me. In fact, if I lived to 100 it will still be there. Every roof around me is metal, some of them roofs I know are 40 years old. Petrol shingles is different, these days your lucky to get 15 years. Mom's uncle's place still has petrol shingles from the 50's, including the asbestos siding from the 40's. When stuff was made to last. :D If you was to replace those asbestos shingles, that would stir up a huge hornets nest, considered hazardous waste and has to be hauled 100's of miles for disposal. I small local school was torn down and everything hauled because of asbestos and that was a $2 M job. Might be 30 ft by 40 ft. No homeowner is going to pay those $$.
Looking at the video, it makes sense. Coat the windows of high rise buildings since most are sheeted in glass.
Note the "Product illustration. SolarWindow products are under development and currently not available for sale"
The concept has been around for years. A bunch of college professors had a similar idea and formed a company called Konarka using an old Polaroid manufacturing plant to make the product. The problem that they and several other firms ran into was that the coatings they used broke down in the sun too quickly. Konarka Technologies - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konarka_Technologies)
There is new investment method called SPACs where an investment firms builds up a big pot of money and searches for a startup firm with a hopefully good idea. If the startup looks good enough, the investment firm merges the big pot of money with the startup and then the investment firm goes public and gets a pile of shares for their trouble. They then go for lots of publicity and sell their shares at profit My guess is this firm is trolling for a SPAC to grab them.
There was a solar roofing product made by a company called Nanosolar. Lots of folks lost a lot of money when they went belly up. They also were printing the solar coating on SS sheets that could be used for roofing.
There were flexible stick on panels for metal roofing. The company is out of business as the sunlight degraded them too quickly.
Owens Corning tried solar roofing but gave up.
Tesla is on its third possibly fourth redesign for a solar roof. They now put a layer of ice and water shield down then put the panels on top of them. They are mostly injected molded plastic with the actual panel that produce power as well as dummy panels snap into the plastic underneath As long as the Ice and water shield is kept out of sun its waterproof so the plastic and solar panels are acting to protect the ice and water shield. It tales a specialty trained crew about triple the time to install compared to regular solar panels. Plastic degrades with sun and heat so the question is, will the underlying plastic clips holding the solar tiles on the roof last long enough.