Interest in glass homes has been around for a while, but the curiosity surrounding its marriage with renewable energy is more recent. In 2017, a researcher at Michigan State University suggested leveraging the U.S.’s up to 7 billion square meters of glass surfaces to create 40% of the nation’s energy in transparent solar. Ideas like this sparked other innovators, including more efforts from MSU in 2022.
One project aims to incorporate micro and nanoparticles between glass panels to make them energy harvesters, like small solar panels. The glass is still able to let light in while the strips on the pane’s edge capture the types of light it needs to help the home.
The technology can integrate anywhere using glass, including greenhouses and skylights. Solar equipment makes everything more affordable by giving homeowners more surface area for installing renewable generators. It would also help commercial agriculturalists, reducing utility requirements and expanding income streams by becoming an energy producer.
Some experts suggest solar windows and similar inventions will never replace the need for rooftop or ground-mounted photovoltaics. However, they will be a worthy endeavor to supplement other renewable projects, like microgrids and resilience, through battery energy storage systems.
What technologies and design choices make glass work for equipment like solar panels?
Homes using passive solar orient their home in a specific way to maximize the sun’s warmth in colder months and divert it in warmer months. For example, wood flooring can capture heat shining through large glass windows, radiating heat throughout the day in winter. Awnings block the sun at its highest during the summer, but glass lets natural sunlight in to brighten the space.
Glass can be as effective at insulating a building as conventional materials, especially when made with low-emissivity coatings for better thermal performance. Professionals can glaze windows three times or more, reducing the heat the home loses or gains, depending on the season. A home must capitalize on the cool air or warmth it generates from its temperature management. Otherwise, it puts excess strain on air conditioning equipment attempting to mitigate outside influences.
The same effect influences renewable energy integrations. Solar panels, small-scale wind turbines and biomass boilers have to work less to provide electricity to the home if it automatically optimizes climate control. This means low-generation days are less anxiety-inducing because the household has already reduced its energy consumption with insulated glass.
Solar panel efficiency ratings continue to rise, but it may not be enough for some parts of the world where sunlight is less accessible. Complementary design choices are necessary if a household or community wants battery energy storage as a backup during an outage or severe weather event. Whether solar glass or using glass to make homes use electricity smarter, the combo would fill external storage faster and provide peace of mind.
The combination of glass and renewable energy could benefit everything from a smart thermostat to automated blinds. Additionally, smart glass should work alongside proposed solar windows to precisely distribute heat and transmit light.
Homeowners could view the statistics about their smart glass like a thermostat, gauging its performance alongside analytics tied to renewable sensors. The information promotes energy literacy through data, which is critical for managing energy consumption in the long term.
Who doesn’t want more plants in the home? You can transform your home into a type of greenhouse by incorporating plants into the design. The plants flourish because the sunlight easily travels through the glass, but the greenery also helps the home’s renewable energy systems work better.
For example, if green energy supports home equipment like air quality monitors and advanced air conditioners, they may not have to work as hard with the plants’ help. Their air-cleaning qualities could improve internal conditions and demand fewer micro-optimizations from smart systems. Fewer system manipulations equate to less energy used to power the house.
Creations like solar windows have not become commercially viable yet. Many blueprints are still in the research stages, and models could be prohibitively expensive for families. Governments offer incentives for installing renewable tech like geothermal heat pumps and solar panels, but nothing explicitly covers prospective solar glass. One day, it could.
Once researchers propel glass into the market as a sustainable, renewable aid, then manufacturers can collaborate on ways to make it economical — perhaps with the help of government funding in the same manner as other green energy tech.
Cost regulation is critical because of how much ethical construction methods already cost companies more than conventional methods. The combination of glass and renewable energy could help shift the construction industry’s mindset. Green practices are becoming more popular already, even though builds cost between $10-$30 more per square meter. These ideas will expand the scope of how many home types can be sustainable.
It will also make the construction sector work harder to expand material recycling infrastructure. If glass supports renewable energy generators so well, then the sector will need to obtain more ethically. Glass shortages are already causing some fear within the industry, so salvaging, recycling and repurposing existing glass for new uses is crucial for promoting sustainable housing by alleviating supply concerns.
While a glass home counters the standards designers have cultivated for decades, it could be the best way to support renewable energy on the property. Once private and public collaborators fund and publicize the benefits of glass and renewables, it could become as much of a housing trend as the tiny home or modular construction movements when advocating for sustainability.
