The Golden State is very unique and has brought us a few firsts, including Barbie dolls, fortune cookies, and wetsuits. It is also the first US state showing the effects of the beginning of the invisible energy evolution. The combination of advanced technology, innovation, and renewables has changed the future as we know it, and a ripple effect is inevitable.
The company behind the revolution
California-based company Ubiquitous Energy has started a revolution from within Silicon Valley. The company was founded in 2011, and its revolution will be based on the innovative solar technology developed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michigan State University. Revolutions do not come cheap, but thankfully, the material science start-up company knows how to sell.
Ubiquitous rounded up another $30 million in funding from an investor, increasing the total to $70 million. This investor is none other than Andersen Corporation, a leader in consumer window and door manufacturing. According to CEO Susan Stone, the company will utilize the funding to research manufacturing and focus on development.
According to CNBC, the Andersen investment is strategic, as Ubiquitous has set its sights on the home residential market. The additional funding will be crucial to get the company into the manufacturing stage after a decade of research and development.
An invisible energy revolution that will change it all
The start of the invisible energy revolution will be raised by Ubiquitous’s unique window coating. This coating, which is only nanometers in thickness, utilizes semiconducting materials to change solar energy into electricity. It comprises small wires that connect the solar window to electrical systems that require energy.
The investing company was bedazzled by the solar window technology, as it is transparent and easily installable into window frames. Stone knows that their technology’s transparency is the key to their success and sets them apart from other solar window technologies that have been making their rounds.
“While there are competing solar window technologies under development, most have tradeoffs in transparency, color, viewing area obstruction, haze, or energy efficiency, making it challenging for consumers to accept them as alternatives to standard windows.” – Prabhakar (KP) Karri and Karl Halling, the company’s investment leaders
This is how windows will be powered up
The concept is simple. These solar windows will look and function like normal windows, but will, in addition, absorb UV and infrared light with a transparent luminescent solar concentrator. UV and infrared light are not visible to human eyes. The absorbed light will be converted into renewable power by thin strips of photovoltaic solar cells. The transparent luminescent solar concentrator can be used in various applications:
- Buildings
- Cell phones
“We can tune these materials to pick up just the ultraviolet and the near infrared wavelengths that then ‘glow’ at another wavelength in the infrared. Because the materials do not absorb or emit light in the visible spectrum, they look exceptionally transparent to the human eye.” – Richard Lunt, Ubiquitous co-founder.
Advantages of transparent solar technologies
According to the World Economic Forum, this technology has numerous advantages, such as its flexibility. The US has an estimated five to seven billion square meters of glass surfaces thanks to all its skyscrapers. Solar Magazine believes that skyscrapers have significant potential to produce clean, renewable energy from the sun.
The company is as hopeful as it is ambitious, and it aims to install one billion square feet of its solar window glass globally by 2050. Stone is also dreaming beyond windows, with hopes of having their technology applied to various industries, such as automobiles, consumer electronics, as well as agriculture. While Ubiquitous remains transparent with its goals, other companies are focusing on more colorful solar ventures.