Solar Windows

Plate-glass windows dominate the facades of modern office buildings and apartment blocks, so what better idea than glass which not only lets in light but also generates free electricity?

Note: Clear glass solar windows are still in development and not yet widely available, if at all.  For now their efficiency is only about 10%, or about half that of standard solar panels.

Home – Ubiquitous Energy

The newest ones are not blue-tinged like before, but completely transparent

See the source image

In vertical-walled buildings the sun strikes the windows at an inefficient angle for solar electricity generation.  Furthermore, most tall buildings are hemmed in by, and over-shadowed for much of the day, by adjacent buildings – thus further reducing their solar collection efficiency

Runways-001

The slanted walls of a pyramidal building would make ideal solar-collectors, and the slant could be optimally angled for solar-collecting efficiency depending on the building’s latitude.