ENEOS Holdings, Inc. (“ENEOS”) and Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. (“NSG”) have begun Japan's first installation of transparent solar panels for use as building windows. The transparent solar windows were developed and fabricated by Ubiquitous Energy, and installed at NSG’s facility in Japan with funding support provided by ENEOS.
The purpose of the installation is to verify the energy savings performance (heat blocking and insulation) and power generation capabilities of Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar windows under Japan's sunlight and weather conditions. ENEOS and NSG will perform quantitative evaluation together at NSG's Chiba Plant over a one year period (from September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022). The companies are considering performing additional installations in buildings and the potential to connect them to solar power generation systems with a view to providing power in the future.
Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent photovoltaic coating, UE Power™, developed over a decade with the glass industry after being invented at MIT, generates electricity from non-visible light while looking virtually invisible. The UE Power™ coating generates electricity on the full surface of the window glass without patterns, borders or color tints. The electricity gets collected and transmitted through wiring built discreetly into the window frame, and it can then be fed into the building to power a variety of products or increase the overall energy efficiency of the building. UE Power™ windows can be installed in buildings such as high-rise buildings, which eliminates the need to secure large areas of land for installation and makes it possible to generate more power on small building lots than horizontally-installed solar panels.
By leveraging the power business and renewable energy business know-how of ENEOS and the knowledge gained through the joint development of solar power generation glass by NSG and Ubiquitous Energy, this initiative aims to create and commercialize a new way of generating solar power.
