Ubiquitous Energy, a materials science startup, has raised $30 million in a new funding round to fund its project to convert windows into solar cells to produce electricity.
The company revealed the closing of a new financing round in which Andersen, the giant window and door manufacturing company, participated, bringing the total financing obtained by the company to $70 million.
The idea of the company is to coat the windows with a semiconductor material to convert sunlight into electricity. The coating is only a nanometer thick and small wires connect the solar window to the electrical systems.
In turn, the company’s CEO, Susan Stone, said that the money raised will be used to fund manufacturing research and development work, as the company targets commercial production by early 2024.
“We will eventually be able to make solar cells that can generate electricity on all the windows, and skyscrapers can also be converted into vertical solar farms,” she added.
The product being developed differs according to its basic idea, in that some current attempts pose obstacles in terms of either transparency of panels, which are originally windows, color, obstruction of the viewing area, fog, or energy efficiency, making it difficult for consumers to accept them as alternatives for standard windows.
30% more expensive than regular window glass
The $30 million increase is a bridge to prepare the company for manufacturing after more than a decade in business. Ubiquitous was founded in 2011 and its technology was born out of work done by scientists and engineers at MIT and Michigan State University.
It is expected that solar photovoltaic window panels will be about 30% more expensive than ordinary glass that enters windows once production is increased, Stone told CNBC and seen by Al Arabiya.net.
PV windows are also less efficient than conventional solar panels, which operate at a maximum efficiency of 22% – which is the measurement of the amount of sunlight that falls on the surface of a solar panel and is converted into electricity.
Stone explained that the company’s product being developed will work at 50% efficiency than conventional solar panels, but its theoretical maximum is about two-thirds of the potential efficiency of ordinary solar panels.
She attributed the reason that part of this lower efficiency is only because the windows are vertical, while the solar panels are placed horizontally, allowing them to collect more direct sunlight.
By 2050, the company aims to install one billion square feet of window glass globally.