Can PV facades be truly viable?

摘要

There are several flavours of technology today jostling to make the dream of electricity-generating windows a reality. While these are likely too expensive and inefficient to be in your home any time soon, pilot projects for such windows in commercial buildings are gaining momentum, and studies (utilising annual data of sunlit areas in cities) have claimed potential gigawatt-hours of electricity generation in the windows on a high-rise. However, a recent research report released by IDTechX would appear to be casting doubt over the true viability of such facades in their current format.