Solar-powered glass houses

By Frederick Carle on April 10th, 2008

People could live in glass houses and look at the world through rose-tinted windows while reducing their carbon emissions by 50% thanks to QUT Institute of Sustainable Resources (ISR) research.

Professor John Bell said QUT had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings.

He said the solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners’ energy costs and could, in fact, generate excess energy that could be stored or sold.

Professor Bell said the glass was one of a number of practical technologies that would help combat global warming which was a focus of research at the ISR.

“The transparent solar cells have a faint reddish hue but are completely see-through,” Professor Bell said.

“The solar cells contain titanium dioxide coated in a dye that increases light absorption.

“The glass captures solar energy which can be used to power the house but can also reduce overheating of the house, reducing the need for cooling.”

Professor Bell said it would be possible to build houses made entirely of the transparent solar cells

“As long as a house is designed throughout for energy efficiency, with low-energy appliances it is conceivable it could be self-sustaining in its power requirements using the solar-cell glass,” he said.

“Australian housing design tends to encourage high energy use because electricity is so cheap.

“But it is easy to build a house that doesn’t need powered cooling or heating in Queensland.”

He said the glass would be on the market in a few years.

Professor Bell said the solar cell glass was the subject of two Australian Research Council Linkage grants to QUT researchers to investigate ways to increase its energy absorption and to reduce the effects of “shadowing”, where overcast skies and shadows from trees or other buildings can cause loss of collected power.

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  • http://solar-power-system.blogspot.com/ Alek@Solar power system

    Powered glass houses – great Idea

  • http://www.pregnancy411.info geoff daum

    Yep – I would agree with that.. Thanks for the line.

  • http://www.earth4energyfast.com/ Earth4Energy

    It is a good idea but will the solar paneled glass look as good as normal glass?

  • http://www.talkgreen.ca fredcarle

    I think it will look different for sure but I assume it will look good.

  • http://www.greetingsvirginia.com/index.shtml Arlington Virginia Real Estate

    Solar Panels are a great way to save money and energy, I was thinking of installing solar paneling in my home because heating energy cost is getting out of hand.

  • http://www.solarcostguide.com solar-cost-solar-panels

    This sounds like a hybrid solution of active and passive systems….which is a very good (and green) idea. Not sure how environmentally-friendly titanium dioxide is but it's worth looking up now that the global focus is on green. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this technology soon in the US. If anyone knows of any conferences where this will be presented, please post it here.

  • Alisha D Herron

    nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now ;-)
    keep it up

  • http://www.unlikenormalenergy.com/Solar-Energy-Articles/Creating-your-own-residential-solar-power-systems.html Cathy Patterson

    Thanks for your post, it is always nice to read posts from other people who care.

  • http://www.earth4energy4.com Earth4Energy

    It is good idea to utilize solar energy which is available free of cost. It will definitely going to reduce power bills.

  • http://www.solar-panels-shop.com/ Solar Panels

    I assume your roof would need to be made of glass also. That would suck when it hails.

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    I like Solar-powered glass houses more and more each day because it makes life a lot easier.

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    Yeah !
    Its a revolution towards green energy .

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    wow, that's so cool, when can we see this thing going into our life? can't wait

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    Really enjoyed reading your blog post. I will have to bookmark your site for later.

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    I also think that it will look great. Besides the energy aspect you got the design aspect.

  • http://www.solarpower4home.net/ solar power for home

    Thanks friend. I'm love this article. Thank you.

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    My parents just had their home converted to solar…it is impressive.

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    It looks like you have placed a lot of effort into your article and I need more of these on the net these days.

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    This is a must for every household now because not only it saves energy but also saves our planet earth.

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    If we could just get governments to quit wasting millions a day on oil, and fund more actual renewable energy projects.

  • http://www.thebarrierealestateblog.com/ Barrie Real Estate

    This is very unbelievable. A friend of my friend has a solar panel and it is really amazing but this solar-powered glass houses are much more amazing. It will surely make your expensive electric bill gone and the great thing is that you can save our Mother world.

  • http://build-home-solar-panel.com/build-your-own-solar-panel-and-save-the-environment Build Your Own Solar Panels

    That could be made my wife happy after our wedding. If I
    offer her that kind of environment friendly house, maybe she will marry me
    again. We can save in money and enjoy our life.

  • http://build-home-solar-panel.com/adapt-the-newest-technology-utilize-the-solar-electric-panels Jessica Avery

    Another great idea and one that will come in handy I am sure to the average house.

  • http://www.ultra-gas.co.uk Aneel

    This is something im going to be doing a lot.  thanks for the info.. its good to see many people discussing this.

  • http://www.ultra-gas.co.uk Boiler

    This is something im going to be doing a lot.  thanks for the info.. its good to see many people discussing this.

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    Oh!…that’s great
    helpful, it’s so right to me! Million thanks for the article,

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    I must say that it was a kind of fabulous. I never expect that this house could be run by a solar powered glass. 

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