While it’s unlikely you’ll be able to buy spray cans of solar cells at your local hardware store any time soon; researchers are making headway into creating compounds that could easily be applied to window glass to turn them into semi-transparent solar panels.
Norwegian company EnSol AS is working with experts in the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy to develop its patented solar cell material that could be applied as a thin film on windows to harness solar power on a large scale.
While some light would need to be absorbed in order to generate power, the windows would only have slight tinting, a desirable attribute in many buildings with windows exposed to the sun. The material could also form part of a building’s walls or as clip-together solar roof tiles.
The material is composed of metal nanoparticles embedded in a transparent composite matrix. According to EnSol AS, the solar cell concept has been demonstrated, and further development efforts are aiming to achieve a cell efficiency of 20% or greater.
Current experimentation will produce solar cells with an active area in excess of 16 cm2 deposited onto standard glass substrates.
“EnSol’s next generation PV cell technology has tremendous potential for industrial scale, low environmental impact, cost effective production via standard spray on” techniques,” said a company spokesperson.
Pictured above is the deposition chamber during deposition of the insulating film. Colours vary at different stages depending on the gas being used. Photo Credit: Prof. Chris Binns, University of Leicester.
