A world-first clear solar glass greenhouse installed in Western Australia in 2021 using homegrown BIPV technology has been found to have cut the agrivoltaic facility’s energy use almost in half, compared to a conventionally glazed alternative.
Perth-based ClearVue Technologies says the results from a “first of a kind” two-year study of the company’s Australian-designed clear solar glazing technology at Murdoch University has demonstrated a roughly 40% reduction in the solar greenhouse energy use intensity.
As well as a “significant offset of facility energy consumption,” the results of the study, published in a peer-reviewed paper in MDPI’s Technologies journal, also reveal remarkably consistent energy generation by the solar greenhouse.
The ASX-listed ClearVue’s solar windows use a transparent interlayer enhanced with nano and micro particles that spread the solar energy that hits the surface toward the optimally positioned solar cells along the perimeter of the insulated glass units (IGUs).
The company completed the construction of the demonstration greenhouse in April of 2021 at Murdoch University’s new grains research precinct at its South Street campus, south of Perth.
Read more at reneweconomy.com.au