New Solar Window film Turns Skyscrapers into Solar Power Plants an Pays For Itself In 1 year!
Solar power is extremely inexpensive to build and maintain install, and would be a massive benefit especially to South Africans with limited incomes who instead pay high prices for sub standard electricity delivery. A solar power plant pays for itself within 2 years and new high performance solar panel can provide energy for up to 35 years while creating a production and maintenance infrastructure that could equate to millions of jobs nationally within 10 years. Renewables are the cheapest form of power today confirms a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency.
The world’s best solar power plants now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in EVERY major country. That is according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2023. The IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) arrives every autumn and contains some of the most detailed and heavily scrutinized analysis of the global energy system. Over hundreds of densely packed pages, it draws on thousands of datapoints and the IEA’s World Energy Model. We saw a temporary increase in the cost of solar installations in 2021 and 2022. But overall, in 2024 the cost of solar has been trending downward and has become 80 percent cheaper since 2010. Solar panel models with High Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) cells (High-efficiency) can produce 25%-30% more electricity than panels built in 2010.
In 2024, the efficiency of most home solar panels ranges between 21% and 25%, with some leading manufacturers achieving over 30% efficiency—a notable improvement of twice the energy generation from the 14.1% average in 2010 coupled with a home battery storage system it can give free energy potentially for the life of a home! Solar power window film is now creating its own major market as it is the lowest cost saving way to have solar power anywhere cheaply and for less than the cost of painting a wall!
There are already solar power windows available in the marketplace today but a US company, SolarWindow Technologies, is developing a product based on a photovoltaic film, that can be used on existing windows.
Photovoltaic technology converts daylight into electricity, similar to a traditional solar panel. By using photovoltaic technology (PV) in a glass application you could effectively turn the glass surfaces of a building into solar panels which can be used to power the building. Imagine the entire skin of a high rise building effectively acting as a giant solar panel collecting energy all day long as the sun hits the glass… This makes photovoltaic glass an extremely efficient renewable energy source. Every skyscraper would become essentially a solar power plant for less than the cost of window replacement!
Many buildings are not good candidates for rooftop solar power systems and cannot participate in the clean power revolution that rooftop solar is bringing to many homeowners. Solar powered windows could change that dynamic by providing the benefits of electricity from clean solar power to all buildings. Apply that to buildings around the world and you have the potential for a significant new source of clean, renewable energy that will pay for itself in a matter of months rather than a period of years.
Scientists in South Africa have proposed a new chalcogenide perovskite solar cell design based on a compound known as barium zirconium sulfide. They tested different hole transport materials in the new device and found that a polymer known as P3HT achieved the best performance. Named for Count Lev Alekseevich Perovskii, a Russian mineralogist who helped contribute to the mining industry of Russia. Perovskite is a widespread mineral with many localities including in Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Greenland, Canada, and the United States.
Perovskite has been found in several locations in Africa, including: Koffiefontein, South Africa: A new perovskite supergroup mineral called goldschmidtite has been found in diamonds from this location Kimberley, South Africa: Perovskite has been found in the Dutoitspan kimberlite in this city.
Photovoltaics as the key to Africa’s electrification and perovskite solar cells should form the backbone of off-grid photovoltaic systems. The mineral is found in great abundance in Sudan, Zimbabwe and South Africa IThe low adoption rate of solar energy is the main barrier to electricity access in Africa and is a leftover of colonization similar to bans on hemp farming and penalties for businesses created after apartheid to stifle their growth. South African lawmakers and acknowledge the role of demand constraints in widening the electricity access gap while emphasizing on the need to prepare power grids to accommodate more solar photovoltaic penetration.
It is deeply troubling that 77% of the world’s 770 million people without access to electricity live in Sub-Saharan Africa, as reported by the International Energy Agency While some sub-Saharan African nations have made efforts to increase their access to electricity in recent years, overall electrification is still far from its potential. An intense debate rages on about how to best provide electricity to those who do not currently have access to it, and many donors and national governments prefer grid extension investment.
While grid power systems receive most of the focus, off-grid systems have emerged as a viable option to expand the grid network and adopt renewable energy sources to lessen the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, introducing residential solar and mini-grid systems in developing countries may be crucial in ensuring that every home has access to electricity. Solar energy has been shown to provide reliable, cheap power to rural areas, especially in developing countries, and as the price of solar panels continues to drop, standalone solar photovoltaic systems are becoming the more cost-effective means of expanding access to electricity. This is particularly the case in the rural parts of African countries, where the majority of the population still does not have access to electricity.
“One of the most exciting opportunities created by renewable energy technologies like solar is the ability to help the world’s poorest develop faster — but more sustainably too.”
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