Apr 12, 2011

What You Talking About Willis?


Chicago's Willis Tower, America's tallest building -- formerly known as the Sears Tower, is getting a major green makeover.  The south side of the 56th floor will soon be home to solar electric glass windows, turning the tower into a 2-MW vertical solar farm.

The windows called high power density photovoltaic glass units are being made by Pythagoras Solar.  They will retain views and daylighting for the floor, reduce heat and produce as much electricity as a traditional solar panel.  The windows consist of monocrystalline silicon solar cells sandwiched between two layers of glass with an internal prism that directs the sunlight onto the solar cells, while letting diffuse light through.  The result is a cooler, natural lighting environment inside the skyscraper and a more efficient solar panel.


Source

9 comments:

  1. very interesting and cool. it makes perfect sense to harness some of that sunlight on buildings, doesn't it? i wonder if enough power could be generated by this to supply a majority of the building's power needs?

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  2. Having lived in Chicago for 5 years and having spent a great deal of time at the Sears Tower, I find this most interesting.

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  3. This is something people ought to think about for every skyscraper.

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  4. I love Chicago. It's one thing we can be proud of here in the Midwest.

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  5. A great idea..! Very creative, too... should be a part of skyscraper construction and design from here on out..!

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  6. What isn't answered here is the cost/benefit relationship. How much are the new windows/panels going to cost, and how much return in generated elctricity are they going to provide? My bet: you couldn't find the answers to those questions if you tried.

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  7. As I'm sure you know, I'm loving this. looking forward to more of these being made and installed all over the world.

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