
IPFS News Link • Building and Construction Materials
Converting all windows to transparent solar would provide 25% of US electrical needs
• https://www.nextbigfuture.com, brian wangAbove – an example of a 5% efficient transparent solar cell
* the calculation of power provided is not 80% but 25%
* the transparent solar cells are still just laboratory demonstrations
* the cells do not have commercial grade stability or years of usability. Currently they degrade quickly
* getting to commercial deployment of any product is still some years away
* the transparent solar needs to get to a competitive price
* they need to scale up production and make factories
Verifying the window claim seems to come up with 25% of US electricity from all windows being transparent solar
There is an estimated 5 billion to 7 billion square meters of glass surface in the United States. There are 100 million houses and apartments in the USA. They have about 10-100 square meters of windows for each residence.
The US receives sunlight that at 100% efficiency would produce about 4.5 kwh per square meter per day. 10% efficiency would be 0.45 kwh per square meter per day. This would be 164 kwh per year. For 6 billion square meters that would be 985 TWh per year.