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Maryland tech firm is developing spray-on solar panels for windows

Green

Maryland tech firm is developing spray-on solar panels for windows

Made primarily out of hydrogen and carbon, the coating can turn see-through surfaces into solar panels.


By BD+C Staff | June 8, 2015
A company is developing spray-on solar panels for windows

Researchers view the Colorado Rocky Mountains through an electricity-generating SolarWindow module. Photo courtesy SolarWindow Technologies

As all-glass façades are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the metropolises of the world, imagine how much solar energy could be generated if each glass pane were to double up as a solar panel.

Maryland-based tech startup Solar Window Technologies is developing a spray-on coating that enables see-through windows to become a solar panel, Off Grid Quest reports. Though products are still being developed and none are for sale yet, the product currently is subject of 42 patent filings.

“SolarWindow can outperform today’s solar by as much as 50-fold when installed on a 50-story building, according to independently validated power production calculations,” the company says on its website.

The coating is created by applying ultra-thin layers of liquid coatings made primarily of hydrogen and carbon, producing ultra-small solar cells.

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Sustainable Design and Construction

Northglenn, a Denver suburb, opens a net zero, all-electric city hall with a mass timber structure

Northglenn, Colo., a Denver suburb, has opened the new Northglenn City Hall—a net zero, fully electric building with a mass timber structure. The 32,600-sf, $33.7 million building houses 60 city staffers. Designed by Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Northglenn City Hall is set to become the first municipal building in Colorado, and one of the first in the country, to achieve the Core certification: a green building rating system overseen by the International Living Future Institute.




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