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If you\u2019re going to be decking your roof out with solar tiles<\/a>, there\u2019s a possibility that you may forgo what might be the best placement of a skylight in favor of more solar cell square footage. Luckily solar glass is fast becoming an option, and these clever glass blocks are the best option I\u2019ve seen yet.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Other solar glass options generally harvest in the infrared range, since if you captured the full spectrum \u2014 well, that wouldn\u2019t be a window, it\u2019d be a wall. But the energy you can capture is limited.<\/p>\n Researchers at the University of Exeter thought up an interesting alternative<\/a> that may be the best of both worlds (until the next breakthrough, anyway). They created these thick blocks of glass with optical features \u2014 not quite lenses or tunnels, but sort of light guides \u2014 that funnel light from a large area on the sunny side of the window onto a much smaller cell on the inside.<\/p>\n By concentrating the light onto a smaller point, you get considerably more energy out of the cell\u2019s tiny surface area than if it were ordinarily illuminated. It won\u2019t be as much as a full-on cell covering that amount of space, but at least it\u2019s transparent! Apart from the little cells and the wires connecting them, of course, which actually make a rather cool-looking pattern.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>And because of their thickness, these Solar Squared units, as they\u2019re called, even provide decent insulation.<\/p>\n