MAKING SOLAR AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE

Turning Windows into Solar Panels

Victor Klimov, March 7, 2016 (Los Alamos National Labpotratory/U.S. Energy Department)

“…While the price of solar photovoltaic cells recently has plummeted and their efficiency has gone up, challenges remain around siting vast arrays of solar-electric panels and finding ways to integrate them into buildings and other applications…[Working with quantum dots, researchers] from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy…achieved a breakthrough in solar-concentrating technology that can turn windows into electric generators and revolutionize the way we think about where and how we generate energy…Solar windows would also be practically unnoticeable while providing peak-demand period emissions-free electricity and grid independence]…Quantum dots fashioned from a light-emitting material…[are] nanocrystals roughly [10 to 50 atoms wide that] obey quantum-mechanics laws…[They] absorb light at one wavelength, efficiently convert it and re-emit it at another wavelength…By adjusting the dots’ size, we can precisely tune those wavelengths to suit our purposes…Turning windows into solar collectors is the kind of disruptive technology that can revolutionize energy generation…If this technology replaced all the glazing on the One World Trade Center building in New York City, the windows could power more than 350 apartments…” click here for more

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