Silas Taylor’s Comps Presentation
Wednesday, March 30th
3:10 pm in Olin 141
Semi-Transparent Solar Cells and Their Implementation as Building-Integrated Photovoltaics
A global energy crisis has been created by our modern society’s reliance on non-renewable resources for the majority of our energy demands. As a finite resource, we, as a species can only rely on fossil fuels for a limited amount of time, but at some point, will be forced to find an alternative. Researchers have gotten a head start on this problem by developing technologies to harness the natural power from the universe around us. In this paper, I will focus on solar power, analyzing the design and functionality of semi-transparent solar cells, as well as a discussion of their viability as energy producing, building-integrated windows that serve to offset building energy usage. Historically, solar power has been unable to offset a significant amount of building energy needs. However, with more surface area when integrated as windows, it can be demonstrated with EnergyPlus, an energy modeling tool, that transparent solar cells can offset a significant portion of a building’s energy usage.