Image: Professor Kamal Alemeh with solar glass. Image courtesy: Edith Cowan University.
NEW SOLAR GLASS A ‘GAME CHANGER’ FOR THE GLASS AND BUILDING INDUSTRIES A research team, led by Professor Kamal Alameh at Edith Cowan University, has developed a breakthrough new technology—a clear glass that harvests energy directly from the sun while letting most of the visible light through. The glass is embedded with nanoparticles and micro-structured elements that help absorb and re-distribute, internally, up to 90 per cent of the ultraviolet (UV) light energy and a good fraction of infrared rays’ energy from the sunlight. The energy is then transferred to solar cells embedded around the edges of the glass panel. While it is not the only solar glass product on the market, it is the first of its kind, because it is clear glass without lines, dots or visible squares of solar panels.
New energy-harvesting clear glass technology has many applications, with a strong potential identified in creating new smart greenhouses, which power their own water filtration, irrigation, heating and cooling.
The glass has already been used in a self-sustainable bus shelter in Port Melbourne. Now, the technology is being developed commercially, in collaboration with partner organisation ClearVue Technologies, with plans to build an advanced energy efficient glasshouse near Perth and trial the product in Singapore and South Africa.
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