Source: The Guardian
A solar power company capable of “printing” colourful glass that can generate electricity from the sun’s energy announced a £2m funding boost on Tuesday.
Oxford Photovoltaics, a spin-off from the University of Oxford, said the investment from clean-tech investors MTI Partners will help its solar glass, which can be dyed almost any colour, take a step closer to the commercial market.
“What we say here is rather than attach [solar] photovoltaics to the building, why not make the building the photovoltaics?” Kevin Arthur, the company’s founder and CEO, told the Guardian. “If you decide to build a building out of glass, then you’ve already decided to pay for the glass. If you add this, you’re adding a very small extra cost. [The solar cell treatment] costs no more than 10% of the cost of the façade.”
These generally cost between £600 and £1,000 per square metre, meaning the new cell treatment would cost just £60-£100 extra per square metre.
The technology works by adding a layer of transparent solid-state solar cells at most three microns thick to conventional glass, in order to turn around 12% of the solar energy received into low-carbon electricity. The power can then be exported to the national grid or used for the running of a building.
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This is very similar to the BIPV (Building Integrated Photo Voltaics)solar panels. Already BIPV modules are available in different hues. Typically they allow about 13% light to enter. The balance area is covered with mono or poly crystalline si cells. These form a facade or roofs and typically designed during the house construction. We have installed two such BIPV of 1 kWp for residences in Bangalore and can mail one of the pics if someone is interested. There are also some more examples of BIPVs in India itself. Some of them being IIT Kharagapur, TERI centre, Guarphari(near Delhi), Indian Oil building in Delhi, Marine Inst,Lonavala(nr.Pune).