WA Branch Meeting Report - 9 June 2022

WA Branch Meeting Report - 9 June 2022 Solar Glass – A Renewable Energy Resource

Source: Victor Rosenberg, Executive Chairman, and Dr Mikail Vasliev, Lead Scientist, ClearVue PV Ltd

L to R: Dr Steve Algie, Dr Mikail Vasiliev, Victor Rosenberg.

ClearVue PV has vision of a world where nearly all building surfaces become solar photovoltaic (PV) collection sources, and a key part of the response to the climate crisis. The company has developed a range of high-transparency window and glazed façade products that operate as solar PV generators, producing 30-40 watts per square metre. The feature that differentiates the product from those of competitors is that this performance is achieved while maintaining 70% transparency to visible light, with high clarity – the clear glass does not have any visible energy-collecting elements. This is an important aesthetic and practical advantage. The economic selling point for the technology is the combination of green energy production and energy saving. In Europe and North America, there are already strong motivations to reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of buildings, in the form of both incentives and very substantial financial penalties for failing to do so. These penalties are already in place and are legislated to increase progressively over the next decade. Already, there are many major potential markets where the combination of incentives and penalties are more than sufficient to offset the higher cost of ClearVue glass. In these markets it is effectively a lower cost option than ordinary glass. In many climates, the cost-benefit case can be further increased since the panels can be combined in double or even quadruple glazed configurations without affecting their PV performance. Not surprisingly, the company sees its future in these overseas markets rather than in Australia.

The way the product works is easiest understood by describing how it is made. Microscopically small particles of photoluminescent compounds are embedded in a plastic film, which is used to laminate two sheets of clear glass (as in a laminated windscreen). When infrared and ultraviolet radiation strike the particles, they luminesce to produce light of wavelengths that can be absorbed by solar silicon PV collectors to generate PV electricity. The particles only absorb around 30 percent of visible light, so the panel appears to be clear glass. The luminescence generated by the particles in the film is channelled by total internal reflection towards the edge of the glass panel; Mikail Vasiliev characterised the composite pane as a leaky photonic waveguide. Small silicon collectors are arranged in a complex array around the edges of the glass, concealed within the frame, and connected so as to allow the panel to, in effect, plug-in, as a PV module. The multiple small silicon collectors provide the collecting area sufficient to absorb the energy collected over the exposed glass surface. The addition of clear glass panels either side of the luminescent composite panel allows it to be encapsulated in a multiple-glazed configuration, reducing heat transfer through the glass panel module while not affecting its generating capacity. Compared to ordinary rooftop solar PV, the ClearVue PV glass has around 10 percent generation capacity per unit area. However, its efficiency does not depend on exposure to direct sunlight. It generates in shade and retains 30 percent of peak efficiency on a wet cloudy day. Moreover, multistorey buildings have a far higher proportion of window area than rooftop area. Victor Rosenberg summarised events that had led to the invention of ClearVue PV glass. His career had taken him from pharmacy, through pharmaceutical manufacturing, to having led multiple start-up businesses in the pharmaceutical and packaging industries. This had given him a keen understanding of both the importance of sustainability and of the potential that can be realised from doing things differently. He explained that while ClearVue glass is certainly a new invention, it does not depend on new science. Instead, it combines a number of established technologies into a new form.

Victor came up with the idea for the product, and started working with Mikail at Edith Cowan University in 2011. Mikail’s role centres on applying his expertise in photonics to optimise performance. Technical challenges dealt with in a decade of development include transparency, colouration of the glass, haze caused by the dispersion of luminescent particles, and conversion efficiency. The company now has a staff of 13. Its first building-scale installations are in in Perth, a glasshouse at Murdoch University and the atrium at Warwick Shopping Centre. A major office installation. Window-scale installations have already been made in China, where the windows are currently manufactured, and adoption of the technology for a new office building in Japan is projected. As these installations indicate, the windows are already manufactured in floor-to ceiling size, with panels up to 3.2m × 2m. Victor showed a number of economic and engineering studies that have guided the development of a suite of products based on the concept and have served to identify the target markets. He acknowledged that there are competing systems, but also provided figures for the vast areas of glass that are constantly being installed in buildings, and the rate of growth in demand, which few in the audience would have known.