New Energy’s SolarWindow on Road Toward Market-Ready Products

New Energy Technologies, developer of see-through SolarWindow™ coatings, capable of generating electricity on glass and flexible plastics, announced that the coating technology is market-ready to transfer into commercial product.

“In advancing our first-of-its-kind technology towards commercialization, our scientists have broken technical barriers and set new records in 2014, significantly raising the performance bar for both power production and aesthetics of see-through organic PV,” explained Mr. John Conklin, President and CEO, New Energy Technologies, Inc.

During 2014, New Energy’s electricity-generating coatings achieved major strides and illustrated many advantages over conventional PV modules:

• Greater power production. Over 50-times greater than conventional PV solar modules when modeled for installation on tall towers;
• Lower CO2 emissions. Over 10-times over conventional PV solar modules when modeled for installation on tall towers;
• Generate electricity on highly transparent see-through glass, enhancing the performance of today’s insulated commercial windows;
• Electricity-generating coatings offer multiple color choices;
• Capable of producing power from natural and artificial light sources in direct, shaded, diffused, and reflected light conditions;
• Does not require expensive high-temperature or high-vacuum manufacturing processes, and is applied at room temperature;
• Constructed using mostly organic materials (polymers), which can be dissolved into liquid form and applied to a variety of surfaces such as flexible plastics and glass;
• Being developed for high-speed and high-volume manufacturing processes, such as roll-to-roll (R2R) or large area sheet-to-sheet (S2S) equipment.

Earlier this year, New Energy’s largest area, high-performance SolarWindow™ modules were unveiled, with architecturally neutral colors and improved uniformity and efficiency. New Energy also set a new record for generating electricity while remaining see-through with over 50% greater power than prior attempts publicized by others. On September 16, 2014, SolarWindow™ modules were also shown to Congress during the first-ever National Lab Day on Capitol Hill.

The next major technical and development milestones for SolarWindow™ relate to improving power, and high-speed and high-volume processing. The milestones relate to the eventual commercialization of SolarWindow™ products. Currently, SolarWindow™ is under development for eventual commercial deployment in the estimated 80 million detached homes in America and more than five million commercial buildings. The technology is the subject of 42 patent filings, and researchers are on track to advance SolarWindow™ towards the goal of full-scale commercial manufacturability.

(Photo: Dr. Scott Hammond, New Energy's Principal Scientist, Displays Neutral-Grey Tinted High-Performance SolarWindow™.)