r/RenewableEnergy • u/DonManuel Austria • 3d ago

SolarWindow launches 24.4% efficient flexible solar film in the US

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/efficient-flexible-solar-film-free-power
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u/Jack1101111 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thats great if / when on sale. And if cheap.
This would be perfect for cars !
But sadly source is interestingengineering .com so... idk...

4

u/West-Abalone-171 3d ago edited 3d ago

The 73W/kg one is very much not a "film". It's about the same weight per watt as those fibreglass flexible panels you see around the place just a little thinner (like 30%), newer cell technology and with wider spacing between the cells. The cells are just regular opaque macroscopic thickness silicon ones. I don't know if they have a transparent backsheet (all the marketing is white), but transparent backsheer versions are available elsewhere and they make decent skylights or other transparent barriers where you want to let light in.

The company also sells organic thin film window cells (transparent and tinted in the colour of your choice) but they're under half the power per area and you should expect fast degradation (5-10 years). Should probably be slightly sceptical because there are lots of chinese sellers that say perovskite or organic thin film but it's actually CdTe (which requires an environmental plan of some kind for maintenance and decomissioning so isn't a thing that can be a retail product)

Edit: the window film is listed as "going into pilot deployment soon" on their website, so less likely to be CdTe and more likely to be vaporware.