Window-Washing: The Next Green Job?

Could window-washing become a green job? It will if researchers at New Energy Technologies, Inc. continue to successfully develop their transparent SolarWindows. Early last week, the company announced a significant breakthrough in that development process when researchers were able to remove metal from the equation.

Metallic elements so prevalent in thin-film products may help produce solar electricity, but as the saying goes, they make a better door than window. So, the company removed those metallic elements from their SolarWindow products and replaced them with more environmentally friendly non-metallic compounds.

The resulting non-metallic thin-film is 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair, with solar cells one-fourth the size of a grain of rice. They are much more transparent than past models. As Meetesh V. Patel, President and CEO of New Energy Technologies said in a press release, “The importance of this breakthrough cannot be overstated.” Indeed, the potential for transparent solar windows is huge. With over five million commercial buildings and 80 million single-family detached homes in the United States, a massive amount of energy could be produced – and energy and money saved – by a marketable solar window and some window replacements.

Posted on January 11th in Solar Products by Dan.