Engineers from South Korea have developed an interesting technology that may provide cheap energy in the future and at the same time protect against heat. These are intelligent windows with extraordinary properties. The growing demand for energy and the shift away from fossil fuels used to produce it have resulted in the need for new, more ecological ways of generating electricity. The most commonly used solutions are solar panels and windmills. However, scientists from all over the world are working on more innovative projects, and one of them comes from South Korea and these are smart windows.
Smart windows with energy production function
Researchers from the Department of Engineering at Seoul National University have developed windows that can produce and store electricity. For this purpose, however, they do not use sunlight, but raindrops. The window is called Plus Energy and uses electrodes made of ITO (indium tin oxide) as a semiconductor. In an article published by scientists, we can read that the combination of ITO and silver, enables the generation of electricity by rubbing raindrops against an electrode. During experiments simulating rainfall, from just one raindrop, generated 8.3 W of energy on an area of one square meter. This may not be a particularly impressive result. For now, the windows in our apartments will not turn into power plants that meet our energy needs. However, it should be remembered that the technology is still in its infancy and as it develops, its effectiveness will increase. These are by no means the only advantages of this solution. Smart windows can also block sunlight. Only the visible part of the sunlight spectrum is transmitted, allows you to reduce the temperature in the room by up to 7 degrees Celsius. This is an extremely useful feature that will reduce the need to use conventional cooling systems in hot summer. This, in turn, will bring additional savings. The last advantage of the window is its the ability to independently remove ice on frosty days. This is possible thanks to the heating function, which also does not require additional energy. For now, the new technology is still in the development phase and is unlikely to hit the market soon. However, if you would like to learn more about it, please visit the Nano Energy magazine. There you will find detailed research results.
Source: Unsplash/lilartsy
