A spin-off, “Glass to Power”, was born at the Bicocca University of Milan, which aims to transform windows into real electricity generators. That's how.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himPhotovoltaic windows to produce energy in a fully integrated way - They thought about it at the Bicocca University of Milan where one was born spin off, “Glass to Power”, which aims to transform windows into real ones electricity generators.
What does it mean? That energy will be produced using windows. That's right: the product of the Glass to Power spin-off is none other than one photovoltaic finestra, which will allow you to look at the external environment and, at the same time, to capture solar energy to meet the energy needs of the building.
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In practice, the window will be made of plastic sheets in which some are embedded nanoparticles that concentrate sunlight.
How the new photovoltaic window works
The technology behind this product is that of Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC): plastic or glass panels in which they are dispersed special nanoparticles which absorb sunlight and transform it into an infrared light beam. This beam of light is reflected in the panel up to the outer edge, where some are positioned small silicon photovoltaic cells which turn it into electricity.
Common windows are thus transformed into semi-transparent solar panels (70/80%) capable of capturing solar energy (effective efficiency 5/7%).
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Other advantages? They are not toxic because in these devices there are no cadmium or other metals. They are very efficient because they absorb light from the entire solar spectrum and do not reabsorb their own luminescence and in addition they are colorless, which means that the new photovoltaic windows integrate "invisibly" in the urban context.
"In order for this technology to come out of the research laboratories and express its potential in sustainable construction - explains Francesco Meinardi, who coordinated the research team of the Bicocca Materials Science Department together with Sergio Brovelli - it was necessary to abandon compositional schemes of nanoparticles taken for granted until yesterday. Instead of continuing to work with the classic semiconductor crystals based on heavy metals such as cadmium or lead, we have created nanoparticles consisting of alloys of several elements, managing to obtain non-toxic concentrators, with extraordinary capacity to absorb sunlight, and which at the same time preserve the key feature of not reabsorbing the light emitted by themselves. In this way we have combined the high efficiencies and the large dimensions required for the construction of real architectural elements. The aesthetic factor is then of fundamental importance because a technological solution, in order to be accepted, cannot be at the expense of the quality of life ".
For now, the industrial development plan provides for the enhancement of a family of patents created by the scientific team of Milano-Bicocca on new classes of nanomaterials, to arrive at the production of windows and glazing capable of reproducing powers up to more than 50 per square meter.
A little bit of figures? “Our estimates indicate that replacing the traditional windows of a skyscraper such as the Shard in London with the concentrators we have patented would generate the energy necessary for the total self-sustainability of around 300 apartments. Add to these figures the energy savings deriving from the reduced use of environmental conditioning, thanks to the absorption of sunlight by the solar concentrators which limits the overheating of buildings, and you have a potentially revolutionary technology for the zero-energy cities of the future " , says Sergio Brovelli.
But in a nutshell? For now the researchers are talking about 60 dollars per square meter.
Germana Carillo
