Dimmable windows with solar panels could power zero-energy buildings

By Hannah Hickey

News and Information

Windows – typically a drain on a building’s energy consumption – are being re-imagined to help boost buildings’ energy efficiency. UW engineers and architects are collaborating on smart windows that can change transparency, depending on conditions, and actually harvest energy from the sun’s rays.

“Architects like color-changing windows such as the one developed at the UW because they don’t want to use mechanical blinds,” said principal investigator Minoru Taya, a UW professor of mechanical engineering. “Now we have developed a switchable dye that is not only blocking sunlight, but harvesting sunlight.”

The work is being funded through a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation branch, which funds interdisciplinary teams. The UW proposal was selected for last year’s competitive Science in Energy and Environmental Design program, aimed at engineering sustainable buildings.

The window includes a compound developed at the UW that can darken on command – either automatically in response to light levels, or as the user adjusts the settings. This project will add a compound that converts incoming solar energy to electricity, to be used immediately or stored in a lithium-ion battery in the window’s frame. The solar panel can even harvest energy from artificial lights, so at night it can absorb energy from the room’s lights.

.... http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/dimmable-windows-with-solar-panels-could-power-zero-energy-buildings