New Energy Technologies, NREL Develop ‘Invisible Wires’ for Transporting Electricity on SolarWindow

New Energy Technologies, Inc. announced that the company and U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) scientists collaboratively developing New Energy’s SolarWindow technology – capable of generating electricity on see-through glass – have successfully collected and transported electricity using a virtually ‘invisible’ conductive wiring system developed for SolarWindow.

The ability to transport electricity on glass windows while remaining see-through is especially important to the eventual deployment of an aesthetically pleasing commercial product.

Currently under ongoing development, the conductive system’s ultra-fine grid-like pattern is deposited on to SolarWindow and is rendered virtually invisible when viewing objects through New Energy’s electricity-generating glass. Researchers anticipate that a fully functional system could help transport the electricity generated on glass surfaces, improving power, efficiency, and overall performance of SolarWindow.

This announcement follows last month’s major breakthrough when the company and NREL scientists collaboratively developing New Energy’s SolarWindow technology successfully fabricated the largest-area organic photovoltaic (OPV) module produced at NREL. Scientists developing New Energy’s SolarWindow technology fabricated a large area working module, more than 14 times larger than previous OPV devices fabricated at NREL.

“It’s very exciting that we’ve not only achieved an important milestone with respect to the size of our SolarWindow™, but we are now able to confidently tackle two of the most important factors to eventual commercialization – the structure and transparency of the wiring system which transports the electricity generated on see-through glass, and overall performance,” explained John A. Conklin, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.

The prospect of generating electricity on SolarWindow is made possible when researchers creatively layer and arrange unique, ultra-small see-through solar cells on to glass. Each of these cells are arranged in a network and interconnected by way of the ‘invisible’ grid-like wiring system. Until now, such systems used in early SolarWindow prototypes were relatively thick and bulky, and applied to glass in ways that obstructed light, prevented the absorbance of light energy necessary to produce electricity, and significantly reduced transparency.

“This technical accomplishment is an important advancement for our SolarWindow, and alongside our recent advancements with size and scale, clearly illustrates the success our research teams have achieved in recent months,” concluded Conklin.