“See-through solar could enable a shift away from bulky solar panels”

Solar technology has improved hugely over the years, and as the tech gets better, the price also falls. Big developers like Cleve Hill Solar and their investment banker backers can see a route to profit and are proposing to cover our landscape with solar panels.

But are traditional solar panels the way forwards? And should we commit to 25 years of this kind of solar when the future clearly (excuse the pun) will produce even better options.

We look forward to seeing developments like the one below take off. Hopefully this sort of technology will become viable before we lose our natural landscape

via See through solar: are we there yet? – Power Technology

Researchers have developed a transparent luminescent solar concentrator that can be placed on glass to harvest solar energy. The technology has vast potential, but how far away is this attractive technology from real-world use?

A team of researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) has developed a transparent solar concentrator. The concentrator is designed to absorb invisible rays of light and convert them into grid-quality electricity, providing a source of clean power with minimal aesthetic impact on a building or device.

Alongside advancements in the technology, materials scientist Richard Lunt and his team have been evaluating the potential for the solar concentrator in the US. The joint paper titled ‘Emergence of highly transparent photovoltaics for distributed applications’, was published in Nature Research scientific journal in 2017. It highlights the great expanses of glass that could become power sources, and how much untapped energy they represent.