When solar power collecting windows were announced a few years ago, I was a skeptic; they were only 5 percent efficient and I thought (and still think) that they were a dumb idea. I wrote:
First, build an efficient wall with no more glazing than is needed for light and view, to reduce energy demand;Second, get some power out of the opaque parts; then, maybe, worry about pulling energy out of the glass. But it is really, a very distant third.
© Adam Moerk via ArchitizerThose solar windows came around on many sites including TreeHugger a few weeks ago, and they are still vapourware, still ridiculously inefficient, and I think they are still a dumb idea. Meanwhile, C.F. Møller Architects have completed the Copenhagen International School in Nordhavn that shows how it’s done: The building cladding is a giant grid of 12,000 very pretty Swiss solar panels. The windows are windows. Mads Mandrup Hansen, lead architect, is explains to Jennifer Geleff in Architizer:
© Glass panels in lab, via Architizer
This is the key – they are not the usual black panel, but a special one developed at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne. The architect explains how it works:
© Adam Moerk via Architizer
Interestingly, all the panels are the same colour, but mounted tilted at slightly different angles. “It just depends on the way the panel is angled, and how the sun hits its individual surface,” Mandrup said.
© Swissinso
Swissinso, the solar panel manufacturer, describes their Kromatix panels as “the only attractive alternative to today’s black and dark blue panels, without compromising on panel performance, efficiency, or architectural design.” But their site shows buildings that look like glass boxes. By doing the different angles, C.F. Møller have made them into something really special.
Swissinso/Screen capture
I have no information as to how efficient these solar panels are because, apparently, this is glass that goes on top of the solar panel to make it look good, with “virtually no effect or compromise in panel performance and efficiency.” I also worry a bit about the angling, and the amount of water that gets behind them when you do it this way, although Mandrup says, “We tested the panels at a climate lab in Spain, where we threw large gusts of wind at them.”
But I really do believe that this is the future of solar façades, where windows are windows and walls have solar spandrels at far greater efficiency. Lots more images at Architizer, who get it with their title How C.F. Møller Architects Altered the Face of Building-Integrated Solar Panels.
