Could transparent solar cells turn everyday products into power generators?

MIT researchers are making transparent solar cells that could turn everyday products such as windows and electronic devices into power generators—without altering how they look or function today. How? Their new solar cells absorb only infrared and ultraviolet light.

Can transparent solar cells power a building?

Building integrated photovoltaics, also known as BIPV, is the nearest application for transparent solar cells. If all the buildings with 90% glass on their surface used transparent solar cells printed on the surface of the glass, the solar cells have the potential to power more than 40% of that building's energy consumption.

What is a transparent solar cell?

Transparency is a physical property that allows light to pass through without interrupting it. The core of this research is transparent solar cell (TSC) and its use in many applications that require optically transparent solar cells, such as car windows. What makes a material transparent is the arrangement of atoms and electrons in it.

Are solar panels transparent?

For example, solar cells could possibly be integrated into windows, vehicles, cellphone screens, and other everyday products. But for this, it is important for the solar panels to be handy and transparent. To this end, scientists have recently developed "transparent photovoltaic" (TPV) devices -- transparent versions of the traditional solar cell.

Can transparent solar cells be used as a PV device?

This issue drove researchers to design new PV concepts, like transparent solar cells (TSCs), that can solve the problem by turning any sheet of glass (or, in general, a transparent substrate) into a PV device.

Are transparent solar technologies a good idea?

According to what reported above, transparent solar technologies are highly desirable inventions, and can find applications in several environments and daily circumstances, such as in buildings, trains, autovehicles windows, smartphones, laptops, etc.