WA-based ClearVue Technologies has improved the design of its solar windows and introduced a “game-changer” version of its Solar Façade Solutions, in moves designed to cut manufacturing and building energy costs and to maximise the attractiveness of renewable energy.
The new design of the company’s flagship integrated glazing unit (IGU) integrates new electrical connection elements aimed at further simplifying assembly and fabrication. It says manufacturing time for its double and triple-glazed IGUs will fall by an astonishing 90 per cent or more, producing major savings on costs and enabling faster production.
Moreover, it says its new design greatly reduces the already low risk of end-product rejections.
Another feature of its upgraded IGU is a lighter weight because of the unit’s reduced thickness. The double-glazed IGU, for example, will be about 40 per cent lighter and is expected to deliver a weight saving of about 20kg per square metre. Embedded carbon content will also be lessened by about 30 per cent due to the use of advanced thermoplastics.
ClearVue’s IGU incorporates a thin transparent film between two or more panes of glass in windows. It soaks up the sun’s rays and radiates the energy to solar strips around the edges of the window. The solar energy is then converted into usable power and can be used to open and close the window.
This proprietary technology in the design lies behind ClearVue’s Solar Façade Solutions, which integrates advanced technology into a building’s glass and facades to provide renewable energy, lowering its energy costs. Carbon dioxide sensors allow its windows to automatically vent, providing more fresh air and reducing reliance on expensive air conditioning.
ClearVue says its new Solar Façade Solutions will extend energy generation by integrating its technology into solar wall panels and solar “spandrel” panels, used between separate floors in a building. The company says the process produces a fully-integrated energy-generating building envelope, leading to an increased energy output of up to 100 watts peak per square metre over the building’s entire façade.
Management believes Solar Façade Solutions will make solar a more attractive mainstream option for commercial building sustainability because it will deliver significantly lower costs and higher overall energy generation, resulting in expected payback period of less than eight years in some instances.
The new ClearVue Solar Façade separately takes a dramatic step forward in commercial building sustainability and architectural design. Now, solar energy generation is possible across nearly every surface of the building envelope. The ClearVue solar spandrel and cladding, when combined with ClearVue’s solar vision glazing, make the integrated solution a game-changer. ClearVue acting chief executive officer Jamie Lyford
The company intends to deliver its new solutions globally through a partner network of licensees, including glazing manufacturers and façade experts and consultants.
ClearVue’s shares rose 20 per cent today to an intraday high of 21 cents on its biggest trading volume since last July.
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