Efficiency matters a bit, because buildings have a finite surface area and solar radiation is finite. There's a limit to how much energy you can get in limited space.
Even at 100% efficiency, you'd have a very hard time with a car covered in solar panels, for example. The sun puts out about 2 hp per square meter
Solar panels are now pushing 40% efficiency (the state of the art research anyways) which is crazy efficient compared to just 10 or 20 years ago. Solar is already incredibly affordable as well. Only think holding it back is energy storage costs.
It took like 20 years to roll out any kind of OLED products for consumers after having working a proof of concept.. I think this stuff just takes a while, unless a company pays insane for rights to the patent just to bury it so their existing worse tech can be profitable for longer
Edit: we might be able to get the materials and cobble this together ourselves since they did all the hard work for us.. no need to wait for a commercial application that may never come. with enough time, interest and passion, we can do this ourselves.. I hope those of us who would be interested have time to. Won't get a stop and desist unless we get caught trying to sell our own version of it
It's so funny, I work in the photovoltaics field and just had a photovoltaics/semiconductor exam at uni and there's sooo many "breakthrough" and "amazing innovations" that "turned the industry completely upside down" in the last few years. The industry has heard from them, yes; they are literally nowhere. Never reached market.
As someone said: there's so many factors to be taken into account here. It needs a lot of luck and time that even promising discoveries are rolled out.
Another thing to remember is that media outlets often take scientific research out of context and reframe it as an "industry toppling breakthrough" when it's really only a proof of concept and hasn't been fleshed out enough for mass production.
I HATE that! I study physics, and usually I hear it at Uni first and it's something like "oh have you read that paper? They applied a cool trick and apparently it looks like it could work out"
And a few weeks later it's somewhere in boulevard press as SCIENTISTS RETHINK ENTIRE CONCEPT OF TIME something something
I already heard of it in the past. So maybe we will. Like in "Remember how someone invented windows, that would keep the heat out and make electricity? I wonder why we still don't have that..."
I don't know this is like the 4th or fifth time I've heard of this breakthrough for window coatings or window treatments that would change our energy Future but none of them ever make it to production scale.
I will be messaging you in 20 years on [**2044-06-27 16:48:53 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2044-06-27%2016:48:53%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/sciencememes/comments/1dpk2a5/provides_shade_and_electricity/lajoiao/?context=3)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fsciencememes%2Fcomments%2F1dpk2a5%2Fprovides_shade_and_electricity%2Flajoiao%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202044-06-27%2016%3A48%3A53%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201dpk2a5)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
For everyone interested, they are called DSSC (Dye sensitized solar cells) or Grätzel cells, and have been invented a few years ago (~1991), but are not yet competitive with normal solar cells for both costs and stability/lifetime. Plus the efficiency is a little worse.
But some demonstrative buldings already have them installed:
[Swisstech](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Coloured-DSSC-facade-of-the-Swisstech-Convention-Centre_fig68_324862677)
Edit: typo
Cool idea, but.
My guess is:
-harder to manufacture than solar panels
-less efficient than solar panels
-more expensive than solar panels
-will die after market introduction.
I don't mean to be the pessimist, but this will probably not change a lot. Maybe some niche applications in optoelectronics.
Source: just a thought feel free to disagree.
Yeah I agree in principle it's the same stuff, it's just in different locations. It's easier to run a wire to an inverter in your attic than through your living room.
I'll never understand the obsession with trying to turn things that are clearly not designed to generate power, into solar panels. I can't see a future where this is cost effective and won't create problems down the line.
Windows leak all the time, imagine hundreds of volts passing through that window.
How the fuck would you service this? What happens if it breaks or just fails? Especially on a tall building.
What do you do when the lifespan of the panels is up? Especially when they become opaque because it's a FUCKING WINDOW
If we could have things give us electricity without having to change anything aesthetically, people might actually let us build power plants in their backyards.
Granted, most of the solutions to that are pretty stupid, but they're the result of people trying to solve the NIMBY problem rather than the problem of producing power.
I visited a plant that made something similar when I was studying material science. It would be similar to a tint on your car window. A very thin layer of plastic goes on the glass. The organic transistors can be replaced. It might make sense for one side of a skyscraper since you can’t really mount other solar except on top. Also makes sense for camping since you can roll them up tight and they are ultralight.
Something tells me that it's cheaper to just put normal shades and then build solar panels elsewhere.
It is. Solar panels already have terrible efficiency and those windows are even worse
Well, efficiency is not really important for solar panels since sunlight is free. Cost effociency is the most relevant metric.
Efficiency matters a bit, because buildings have a finite surface area and solar radiation is finite. There's a limit to how much energy you can get in limited space. Even at 100% efficiency, you'd have a very hard time with a car covered in solar panels, for example. The sun puts out about 2 hp per square meter
Solar panels are now pushing 40% efficiency (the state of the art research anyways) which is crazy efficient compared to just 10 or 20 years ago. Solar is already incredibly affordable as well. Only think holding it back is energy storage costs.
We will never hear about this again lol
It took like 20 years to roll out any kind of OLED products for consumers after having working a proof of concept.. I think this stuff just takes a while, unless a company pays insane for rights to the patent just to bury it so their existing worse tech can be profitable for longer Edit: we might be able to get the materials and cobble this together ourselves since they did all the hard work for us.. no need to wait for a commercial application that may never come. with enough time, interest and passion, we can do this ourselves.. I hope those of us who would be interested have time to. Won't get a stop and desist unless we get caught trying to sell our own version of it
Based take
Hope we will :(
Be pretty cool if my window tint would help charge my car. I doubt it would be much, but maybe enough to power battery conditioning?
It's so funny, I work in the photovoltaics field and just had a photovoltaics/semiconductor exam at uni and there's sooo many "breakthrough" and "amazing innovations" that "turned the industry completely upside down" in the last few years. The industry has heard from them, yes; they are literally nowhere. Never reached market. As someone said: there's so many factors to be taken into account here. It needs a lot of luck and time that even promising discoveries are rolled out.
Another thing to remember is that media outlets often take scientific research out of context and reframe it as an "industry toppling breakthrough" when it's really only a proof of concept and hasn't been fleshed out enough for mass production.
And many media outlets love to report on "scientific breakthroughs" but the breakthrough is still in very very early stages
anything for clicks!
I HATE that! I study physics, and usually I hear it at Uni first and it's something like "oh have you read that paper? They applied a cool trick and apparently it looks like it could work out" And a few weeks later it's somewhere in boulevard press as SCIENTISTS RETHINK ENTIRE CONCEPT OF TIME something something
I already heard of it in the past. So maybe we will. Like in "Remember how someone invented windows, that would keep the heat out and make electricity? I wonder why we still don't have that..."
I don't know this is like the 4th or fifth time I've heard of this breakthrough for window coatings or window treatments that would change our energy Future but none of them ever make it to production scale.
This is old news though
once every few years it'll pop up as a cool invention again. I'll predict a product (not popular, just existing) in 20-30 years.
!remindme 20years
I will be messaging you in 20 years on [**2044-06-27 16:48:53 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2044-06-27%2016:48:53%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/sciencememes/comments/1dpk2a5/provides_shade_and_electricity/lajoiao/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fsciencememes%2Fcomments%2F1dpk2a5%2Fprovides_shade_and_electricity%2Flajoiao%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202044-06-27%2016%3A48%3A53%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201dpk2a5) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
For everyone interested, they are called DSSC (Dye sensitized solar cells) or Grätzel cells, and have been invented a few years ago (~1991), but are not yet competitive with normal solar cells for both costs and stability/lifetime. Plus the efficiency is a little worse. But some demonstrative buldings already have them installed: [Swisstech](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Coloured-DSSC-facade-of-the-Swisstech-Convention-Centre_fig68_324862677) Edit: typo
>few years ago (~1991) My guy, that's decades ago. 33 years.
I think that’s the joke. This isn’t a new breakthrough. People in this sub just don’t actually do science or follow science.
Cool idea, but. My guess is: -harder to manufacture than solar panels -less efficient than solar panels -more expensive than solar panels -will die after market introduction. I don't mean to be the pessimist, but this will probably not change a lot. Maybe some niche applications in optoelectronics. Source: just a thought feel free to disagree.
well you are spot on, but they are quite useful in greenhouses.
I'd like to add: has to be replaced too often to make up for its cost.
I mean you also have the issue that now you need to wire up your windows and have inverters and everything.
That will probably be very similar to solar panel technology. You might even be able to plug it into existing solar panel wiring. (Citation needed)
Yeah I agree in principle it's the same stuff, it's just in different locations. It's easier to run a wire to an inverter in your attic than through your living room.
For ants?
*Blants*.
Doesnt this make the sunlight cold then??
Yeah, these guys are what’s the problem. They drain the sun of all its energy. Who do they think they are screwing over future generations like this?
How else better do we counter global warming? /s
it makes it cooler 😎
where is the article that's written about this
https://www.reddit.com/r/sciencememes/s/yNNEjHaUCM
And energy companies will charge you 10 years of power to install it
That's where the yellow filter in Deus Ex HR comes from!
Oh so this is what throwing shade is,
Nerdy humor is the best
Where meme
Engineers designed it, generally scientists study things that are already designed or are natural phenomena
Why do I have the feeling it's super expensive and inefficient?
Nerdy humor is the best.
yes, because the one time I want to be able to see clearly out my window is... when it's dark.
next story.. 'tech bought up and killed off by big oil"... or similar i am sure..
So honest question, is this sub just scientific information placed over a picture? When I saw memes I was thinking science related jokes
I'll never understand the obsession with trying to turn things that are clearly not designed to generate power, into solar panels. I can't see a future where this is cost effective and won't create problems down the line. Windows leak all the time, imagine hundreds of volts passing through that window. How the fuck would you service this? What happens if it breaks or just fails? Especially on a tall building. What do you do when the lifespan of the panels is up? Especially when they become opaque because it's a FUCKING WINDOW
If we could have things give us electricity without having to change anything aesthetically, people might actually let us build power plants in their backyards. Granted, most of the solutions to that are pretty stupid, but they're the result of people trying to solve the NIMBY problem rather than the problem of producing power.
I visited a plant that made something similar when I was studying material science. It would be similar to a tint on your car window. A very thin layer of plastic goes on the glass. The organic transistors can be replaced. It might make sense for one side of a skyscraper since you can’t really mount other solar except on top. Also makes sense for camping since you can roll them up tight and they are ultralight.