IF ONE team of American inventors gets its way, you may never see a solar panel again.
New Energy Technologies’ plans to completely wipe out the old-school panel are well underway and the team have come up with a novel replacement; the Solar Window.
Sounding ridiculously futuristic, the Solar Window will allow windows to remain transparent while generating electricity through a spray on coating. The electricity can be then transported away from the window through almost invisible wires.
The group hope to have the creation up and running in the next few years and it may be the answer to those with concerns about ruining the look of their pad with hefty panels.
In a survey by Eco Experts, some 5 % of people (96 out of 1994) said the main reason they would not install panels is because they didn’t like the look, with many more citing it as a secondary reason.
However, it is not just about aesthetics, the team claims SolarWindow works well in low light conditions and can even be applied on east and west faces of a building, unlike conventional PV panels which primarily need to be deployed facing south.
And the company has big ambitions, believing in the future their product can even be used on north facing windows, using reflected light to generate energy, making the old PV structures really a thing of the past.