Collaborators

The product brings together two kinds of expertise: the solar cell itself and the glass it has to live in. Neither works without the other — a cell that cannot be laminated into architectural glazing stays a laboratory result.

Brite Hellas S.A.

Develops a third generation Dye Sensitized Solar Cell for greenhouse applications. Unlike conventional silicon, this cell type can be made semi-transparent and tuned to absorb the part of the spectrum that plants use least, leaving the rest for the crop.

JingCheng Glass

Develops glass products and provides glass manufacturing solutions. Turning a working cell into a panel means lamination, edge sealing and handling at architectural sizes, to the tolerances that glazing for greenhouses and buildings requires.

How the two come together is described on the project page. Coverage of the work is collected under press.

What the crop sees

Plants do not use the solar spectrum evenly. Photosynthesis draws mostly on the blue and red bands, leaving other wavelengths comparatively idle from the plant's point of view. That unevenness is the opening semi-transparent photovoltaics work in.

A cell tuned to absorb where the crop is least sensitive takes energy the plant was not going to use. The result is not free — some loss is unavoidable — but it is far smaller than the shading an opaque panel of the same area would cast.