The Ubiquitous Energy group holds a 1.5×3-meter glass coated with one among Ubiquitous Energy’s UE Power clear solar supplies.
Ubiquitous Energy, a next-generation expertise firm creating clear solar expertise for architectural glass, has efficiently demonstrated 1.5-meter-wide glass coated uniformly with the corporate’s UE Power clear solar supplies. This exhibits the power to scale UE Power to giant sizes uniformly, which is crucial in reaching high-performing solar units whereas sustaining the aesthetics and performance of conventional low-emissivity window glass. The firm’s upcoming high-volume manufacturing line will produce 1.5×3-meter, floor-to-ceiling, clear solar home windows.
UE Power is a clear solar glass coating expertise that’s manufactured utilizing vacuum bodily vapor deposition (PVD), the identical tools utilized by producers to coat architectural glass right this moment. UE Power natural semiconductor supplies had been deposited in a full-size PVD prototype coater, displaying near-perfect uniformity inside 1-2% tolerance over 1.5-meter-wide glass for coatings which are tens of nanometers thick.
“Achieving this milestone prepares us well as we move our transparent solar technology from the pilot phase into full-scale manufacturing,” says Miles Barr, Ubiquitous Energy’s co-founder and CTO. “Architectural glass isn’t actually flat; it’s slightly wavy. For this reason, achieving highly uniform, defect-free thin film electronics like transparent solar over large glass sheets has historically been difficult by other methods like solution printing.”
“Well-established PVD coating technology gives us tight control over thickness and optical appearance of our transparent solar organic semiconductor materials and allows us to piggyback on the equipment and process controls that has been enjoyed by the architectural glass industry for decades,” provides Barr.
The prototype coater will now be replicated for the deposition of clear solar supplies within the firm’s first high-volume U.S. manufacturing line, which is anticipated to be operational in 2024. Each 1.5×3-meter piece of UE Power glass might generate as much as 1 kWh of electrical energy every single day.
