CLEAN TECH
Transparent solar panels could fit into places such as windows or glass buildings .
the folds , but it ’ s heavily backed up by math and engineering .”
Transparent Solar Panels Scientists at Michigan State University have created a solar panel that ’ s completely transparent , essentially looking like a pane of glass . Efforts to create similar panels have been explored before , but to lesser degrees of success . The plastic was colored , similar to stained glass , and highly inefficient . The coloration also limited the usability of the plastic panels .
“ No one wants to sit behind colored glass ,” Richard Lunt , an assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science , said . “ It makes for a very colorful environment , like working in a disco . We take an approach where we actually make the luminescent active layer itself transparent .”
The system uses small organic molecules that absorb specific nonvisible wavelengths of sunlight .
“ We can tune these materials to pick up just the ultraviolet and the near infrared wavelengths that then ‘ glow ’
18 February 2015