Solar Window Sets New Record, Doubling Its Power Conversion Efficiency

SolarWindow Technologies Inc., a developer of transparent liquid coatings and processes for generating electricity on glass and plastics, says it has more than doubled its prior certified performance, achieving the highest independently certified power conversion efficiency of previous organic photovoltaic devices fabricated at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., through a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA).

SolarWindow reported a record 14.72% (+/- 0.29%) power conversion efficiency using industry-standard single-cell patterning for performance testing. Spurred by these positive results, engineers are already working to further optimize power conversion efficiency for a single cell and translate this efficiency to large-scale SolarWindow applications for products such as electricity-generating glass windows for buildings, automotive sunroofs and more.

“This remarkable efficiency tangibly demonstrates SolarWindow capabilities to the marketplace by setting a new standard for power conversion efficiency, the absolute metric for determining how much power is generated from light,” says Dr. James Whitaker, principal scientist and vice president of technology development at SolarWindow.

Unlike conventional solar panels, SolarWindow applies ultra-thin layers of its LiquidElectricity coatings and processes to plastics and glass, which then generate electricity. Available in a variety of colors and transparencies, these liquid coatings are 1/100th the thickness of a human hair and can be applied using low-cost and high-throughput methods typical to commercial manufacturing of tinted window films, digital displays, semiconductors and newspaper printing.

Last quarter, SolarWindow management announced plans to increase power and prototyping capabilities. Within weeks, Whitaker and his team achieved a 500% increase in testing speed, a 12-fold greater testing capacity and output, and a 20-times reduction in material costs for rapid lab-scale prototyping of SolarWindow electricity-generating glass.