----- Original Message ----- From: "Sustainable Technologies" To: "Cathy Colwell" Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 5:00 PM Subject: Re: Mainland High School, Daytona Beach, FL (#3 and guidelines) Yes, there are UV and IR 'dyes' and there has been some work done, not here, but in Switzerland, on the use of dyes which are transparent to visible wavelengths. As yet the efficiencies achieved are not commercially viable for windows. Connection to the grid is easy - the same inverters used for roof mounted silicon PV are suitable, and in use in the thousands round the world. I would be happy to be listed as an adviser, but please don't give away my email address to the students of the USA - I dont think I could cope. Best of luck Sylvia Tulloch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sylvia, It turns out that what we wanted to do with generating electricity from light passing through windows is already being addressed by STA. http://www.nikkeibp.com/nea/may97/maynap/aus.html But we would also like our windows to serve as a source of natural illumination for the building - translucent, not necessarily transparent. (Is this your phase 2- electric window?) Is there a possibility that the dye used in a titania cell could absorb radiation from the UV range or IR range instead of the visible spectrum? so that the light that passes through and isn't used to produce electricity is more accommodating to the visible spectrum required for human vision? Could you also explain to us a typical mechanism by which the electricity is funneled into the building's power grid. During the course of this investigation we are to secure assistance from technical advisors. I am hoping that you would be willing for us to include your name on our website as a technical advisor. Your responses to our questions have been wonderful and very helpful. I am crossing my fingers that you will accept our offer. Anxiously awaiting your reply, Cathy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As background, the contest we have entered is called the Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF). It is sponsored by the college of engineering at UCF. We have chosen Energy as our national critical technology (NCT). Our technical application is focusing on increasing a building's efficiency with an emphasis on window efficiencies and PV technologies. http://istf.ucf.edu/Guidelines/High/ In the contest we have to identify two existing products (in our case, either two types of solar cells (thin film) and/or a window technology), understand their properties and then propose a new product that addresses a realistic need and a (at least partial) solution. What we have learned is that windows reduce the energy efficiency of most buildings by a factor of 25%. With the (fossil fuel) energy crisis and the abundance of solar energy, what we want to propose is a new window design - one in which the window has already integrated into it solar cells for the collection of solar energy. So that the window is not just glazed or thermally insulated, but actually an energy source as well as a source of natural, ambient light. The initial price does not have to be competitive, any new design is always expensive until it goes into mass production. In addition, there has to be a positive economic impact and workforce demand for the product. Our college program is in solar architecture - the integration of solar technologies and building design/function. Another link that you might want to look at to give you a more global picture of this contest is http://istf.ucf.edu/Hall_of_Fame/ Mainland's past two projects are listed here: (the links on their page are incorrect, please use these) Biomass http://mainland.cctt.org/istf2000/Page/iexplorer.htm in 1999-2000 and TurtleLights http://mainland.cctt.org/istf/ in 1998-1999