Researchers a UCLA have developed some new transparent solar cells, which could possibly be used in the future in windows in your house and also have a number of other applications.
These new solar cells are capable of generating electricity and at the same time you will be able to see through the cells, this is one thing that has stopped windows in a house being used as solar panels in the past.
These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications,” said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering, who also is director of the Nano Renewable Energy Center at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).
Yang added that there has been intense world-wide interest in so-called polymer solar cells. “Our new PSCs are made from plastic-like materials and are lightweight and flexible,” he said. “More importantly, they can be produced in high volume at low cost.”
The new technology should make it possible for windows in buildings to be used a solar panels, who knows in a few years we may all have this technology in our homes.