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ClearView Power technology is an invisible, power-producing coating for windows. It provides a level of transparency to enjoy natural lighting and a view of surroundings while converting infrared and ultraviolet light into electricity to offset energy consumption. ClearView Power can also serve as an onboard source of electricity to autonomously power electronic smart window functionality.
CLEARVIEW POWER™ TECHNOLOGY FOR WINDOWS
Saves energy: offsets energy consumption in buildings and rejects unwanted ultraviolet and infrared light from entering the building
Provides onboard power: incorporates electronic functionality into windows without the need for wiring and expensive installation
Invisible: ClearView Power™ film covers vertical window surfaces without blocking the view or the quality of natural lighting
Opportunity: Building-integrated solar technologies are a promising pathway to capturing solar energy and increasing building efficiency at the point of electricity utilization. However, the widespread adoption of such technologies is severely hampered by the aesthetics associated with mounting traditional solar cells.
ClearView Power™: Ubiquitous Energy has redesigned the solar cell to selectively transmit light visible to the human eye while absorbing only the ultraviolet and infrared light and converting it into electricity. This makes ClearView Power™ technology the first truly transparent solar technology, allowing any surface to convert ambient light into useful electricity without impacting the way it looks. Two thirds of the light available for energy harvesting is in the ultraviolet and the infrared, leading to practical efficiencies over 10% while maintaining up to 90% visible transparency. ClearView Power™ leverages Ubiquitous Energy’s technology and patent portfolio, including exclusive rights to award-winning technology developed by the company co-founders at MIT and MSU.
Conventional Solar: Photovoltaics absorb ambient light and convert it into useful electricity, offering the promise of ubiquitous, clean, renewable energy. However, conventional solar cells are opaque, which limits their use to a few specific applications (e.g., roof mounted) due to aesthetic constraints. Previous attempts to make these solar cells transparent have focused on allowing only a portion of visible light to pass through by either thinning down the photoactive material or segmenting cells across the module area. Because this approach suffers from a tradeoff between transparency and efficiency, neither is achieved.
Pilot Production: To bring ClearView Power technology to market, Ubiquitous Energy established prototyping and pilot production capabilities in Silicon Valley with a complete set of fabrication, characterization, and environmental testing tools. This facility is designed to prepare ClearView Power™ for mass production. Non-toxic, readily available materials are deposited by industry-standard vacuum deposition techniques common in high-throughput film coating processes, and the low-temperature deposition process can utilize rigid or flexible substrates. Ubiquitous Energy is currently working with commercial partners to develop engineering and product prototypes for first applications in mobile and distributed electronics.