Smart building materials company Clearvue Technologies Limited announced that its clear solar research greenhouse is now open in Perth Western Australia. This clear solar glass greenhouse is the world's first and Clearvue has used three different versions of its transparent solar photovoltaic glazing panels in its walls and roof, it claims. The glass window panels are capable of sucking up energy from the sun and utilizing that energy in-house. By using clear solar glass, it allows natural sunlight to filter through and generate power using the unwanted ultraviolet and infrared light.
This greenhouse will be used by Murdoch University's geneticist Professor Chengdao Li and his team to develop new plant breeding technologies, ultimately integrating them to produce commercial crop varieties. In addition, ClearVue too will undertake its own research regarding energy generation and energy efficiency.
ClearVue Technologies Executive Chairman, Victor Rosenberg said, "ClearVue is truly excited to finally be able to show the world our truly world-leading product being used in this agricultural application – just one of the wide range of applications the ClearVue technology and products can be used for."
This Greenhouse Research project has been supported by a $1.6 million grant from the Australian Federal Government's AusIndustry Cooperative Research Center Projects program. R&D and construction has been completed with the assistance of its research partner Edith Cowan University and its construction partners Blanc.
In 2019, ClearVues product received secured UL 61730 certification from global safety science company UL that cleared the way for the company to sell its product in the US market along with other geographies (see Australia's ClearVue Secures UL Certification).
ClearVue's technology uses solar PV cells around the edges of insulated glass units, which include a nanoparticle interlayer and spectral-selective coatings on the the outside back surface. While much of the light can pass it is redirected by IR and UV light to the edges of the IGU where it hits the solar cells.