Next Energy Technologies Produces Fully Transparent Organic PV Window

Next Energy Technologies has completed an upgrade of its pilot production line to produce 40-inch by 60-inch laminated transparent power-generating windows using its Next transparent organic photovoltaic, or OPV, coating and manufacturing process.

This pilot production marks a step towards enabling the glass industry to produce full-scale vision area glass for clean, solar energy-producing facades.

About Next OPV coatings

Next OPV coatings address three big challenges to creating a scalable solution for the commercial glass industry: aesthetics, performance and manufacturability. The neutral grey coating, modeled after a popular color in North American commercial facades, is combined with power generation and in-line manufacturing to make a solution for the glass industry. 

“The combination of highest quality aesthetics, power generation and integration with the glass supply chain is a game changer in the push towards designing net zero buildings,” says Andy Cohen, Gensler co-chairman. “Just mid-last year, we were demonstrating Next’s 27-inch by 35-inch OPV windows at our office in LA, and with this larger window format, we have sustainable building projects in our sights.”

Next is preparing demonstration installations with key U.S. and European partners while focusing on shifting from pilot to production scale and obtaining UL safety and performance certification for grid-connected projects.

“This milestone is further evidence to an industry hungry for a solution that our combination of OPV coatings and advanced manufacturing processing is working, scaling and can be rapidly deployed,” says Daniel Emmett, co-founder, executive chairman and CEO of Next. “It’s a proof point that builds high confidence in our path to enabling 60-inch by 120-inch commercial production.”

Next’s transparent OPV coating aims to transform commercial windows into clean energy-generating facades, and make buildings more sustainable and resilient and alleviate strain on the grid.

A building with Next OPV facades has the ability to produce significant on-site renewable power, offsetting 20% to 25% of a typical commercial building’s energy load. The windows also absorb and convert infrared light, reducing the building’s HVAC demands.