Chinese scientists unveil energy-generating window

[Amaterasu]

From:  http://genesisnanotech.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/chinese-scientists-unveil-energy-generating-window/

Scientists in China said on Thursday they had designed a "smart" window that can both save and generate energy, and may ultimately reduce heating and cooling costs for buildings.



Scientists in China have designed a window that can save and generate energy. Photo: Reuters

While allowing us to feel close to the outside world, windows cause heat to escape from buildings in winter and let the sun's unwanted rays enter in summer.

This has sparked a quest for "smart" windows that can adapt to weather conditions outside.

Today's smart windows are limited to regulating light and heat from the sun, allowing a lot of potential energy to escape, study co-author Yanfeng Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said.

"The main innovation of this work is that it developed a concept smart window device for simultaneous generation and saving of energy."

Engineers have long battled to incorporate energy-generating solar cells into window panes without affecting their transparency.

Gao's team discovered that a material called vanadium oxide (VO2) can be used as a transparent coating to regulate infrared radiation from the sun.

VO2 changes its properties based on temperature. Below a certain level it is insulating and lets through infrared light, while at another temperature it becomes reflective.

A window in which VO2 was used could regulate the amount of sun energy entering a building, but also scatter light to solar cells the team had placed around their glass panels, where it was used to generate energy with which to light a lamp, for example.

"This smart window combines energy-saving and generation in one device, and offers potential to intelligently regulate and utilise solar radiation in an efficient manner," the study authors wrote in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

[deuem]

A window in which VO2 was used could regulate the amount of sun energy entering a building, but also scatter light to solar cells the team had placed around their glass panels, where it was used to generate energy with which to light a lamp, for example.

That placed around statement is in question. Have to see it. there are other coatings that block IR at different levels but they are mostly constant. i have used them in atriums and other down light windows where you would bake alive if no coating were there. If this adjusts it will be nice. It would be nice if one could regulate it from the inside.

I saw my first double pane glass windows here just a few months ago. In the future there will be a clear solar cell inbetween the panes just like they do with plastic curtains in hospitals. The strips that turn. This could be done now but the windows would be too thick. We need a film. A clear film.

I have a lot of windows that need to be changed out to lower my electric bill so I wish they would hurry up. My new place also has double pane glass so it would require a change out.