Transparent Solar Panels

Can These Transparent Solar Panels replace windows??

Researchers working at Michigan State University claim to have created a completely transparent solar collector

                 Researchers working at Michigan State University (MSU) have created a completely transparent solar collector which is so clear that it could replace conventional glass in windows. The new devices – dubbed transparent luminescent solar concentrators – have the potential to not only turn windows into solar electric generators, but the screens of smartphones, vehicle glazing, and almost anything else that has a see-through surface.

               "We can tune these materials to pick up just the ultraviolet and the near infrared wavelengths that then 'glow' at another wavelength in the infrared," explained Lunt. "Because the materials do not absorb or emit light in the visible spectrum, they look exceptionally transparent to the human eye."

The transparent solar collectors developed by the MSU team use microscopic organic molecules

               The research is also at an early level of efficiency as well; despite references to the inefficiencies of colored solar collectors, the prototype MSU devices barely produce a solar conversion efficiency of 1 percent. As a result, the team aims to reach efficiencies "beyond 5 percent" at some stage, noting that the best coloured solar collectors developed elsewhere have a conversion efficiency of about 7 percent.

Source: www.gizmag.com