Heliatek & AGC develop PV windows and glass facades

This will enable the entire glass façades of buildings, including windows, to become highly efficient, cost-effective, solar energy harvesters to reduce a building's carbon footprint combined with a discrete, aesthetically-pleasing, visual appearance.

Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek, comments: "Once developed, this will open up all vertical glass surfaces for PV. They offer a much larger installation area than roof tops that are the focus of today's solar building installations, plus there are no additional installations costs unlike conventional PV panels."

Heliatek's award-winning, Solar Films are ideally suited to this application because they can be opaque or semi-transparent in a variety of colours. The films are ultra-light, ultra-thin and highly efficient under real world conditions, thanks to three unique features. They harvest the sun's energy at peak efficiency for longer daytime periods than traditional solar technologies: from full sun down to a tenth of full sun, such as on a cloudy day. In addition, they can operate efficiently in any orientation, even when not directly facing the sun and only receiving indirect or diffused light. Finally, their performance remains stable up to 80°C.

"This agreement fits in perfectly with our strategy of providing affordable and environment-friendly glass solutions to our customers, the building industry and the community at large. I am confident that this solution will open up new prospects for creativity and energy efficiency to architects and designers," commented Marc Van Den Neste, CTO of AGC Glass Europe.

Alexander Valenzuela, VP Business at Heliatek, concludes: "Together, we understand and will meet the building industry requirements as well as the needs of the architects and end-users regarding reliability, life-expectancy and return-on-investment."