Plate-glass windows dominate the facades of modern office buildings andapartment blocks, so what better idea than glass which not only lets in light but also generates free electricity?
[stextbox id=’info’]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.
The newest ones are not blue-tinged like before, but completely transparent 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 efficiencyThe 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.
