A US renewable energy company is convinced its latest transparent spray-on solar PV film will boost energy output by 300 percent.
The SolarWindow is New Energy Technology Inc.’s one-foot by one-foot completely transparent panel which will replace the company’s previous four-by-four-inch model, which was unveiled in September 2010.
New Energy’s large-area prototype is 300% larger in its axis dimension and 900% larger in surface area.
The company appointed to its board two experts in the field of solar technology in order to realise the latest incarnation of the SolarWindow.
Dr Z. Valy Vardeny is one of the world’s foremost experimental physicists, specialising in improving efficiency of power output of solar energy arrays. It is his expertise in the area of solar power output, specifically how the behaviour of compounds which help promote the transportation of electrons on solar panels, that were essential in the development of the New Energy’s technology.
Dr Xiaomei Jiang was the lead researcher on the SolarWindow, responsible for scaling up the prototype model and achieving the “see-thru” capability of the solar panel, while at the same time generating electricity. Another of Dr Jiang’s breakthroughs is developing a method of spraying the solar PV film onto glass at room temperature, rather than at high pressure or in temperature-sensitive environments. This drastically reduces the cost of manufacturing the panel.
New Energy has fought for control of the many patents surrounding the SolarWindow and its other renewable energy technologies and hopes to soon have a commercially viable solar generation product that can be sprayed directly onto glass, according to John Conklin, CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.
“This important milestone event brings our SolarWindow™ technology yet another step closer to the residential and commercial end-user. We continue to pursue an aggressive product development program, working to improve, among other things, solar cell efficiency, power output, durability, manufacturability, and further scale-up.”
