Glass and glazing tends to be regarded as a passive material that has little use other than lighting and appearance, however, it has been established that properly formulated glazing components can have a dramatic impact on the overall energy use in buildings.
The development of sound theoretical models and the demonstration of the Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) suggest that the next energy breakthrough in glazing and windows will be to convert sunlight falling on the glazing (which results in a temperature gradient within/across the glazing) into significant amounts of electricity for use in that building or for re-circulation to the grid. Therefore, complex and interlocking issues that need to be solved include:
• A continued improvement in glazing that will maximize thermal gradient across the integrated TEG but maintain the primary function as light providers.
• The need for new TEG materials that can maximise the conversion of full spectrum incident sunlight into usable current.
• The 'extraction' and use of the power generated and the technical issues associated with returning it to the grid.
• The public policy and new business models required to turn a successful technical prototype into a commercial reality.
The research will address each of these problems in an integrated and holistic fashion.
This research programme will develop novel transparent TEGs integrated with an electrochromic vacuum glazing (EC VG) and triple vacuum glazing (TVG). There are four relative project objectives in the development roadmap:
1. Optimise, develop and characterise TE materials and TEGs for TEG AGS to achieve 6% energy conversion efficiency and high thermal insulation (U-value < 0.3Wm-2K-1).
2. Develop mathematical and numerical models to optimise the design, keeping the stress under bearable level and enhance the durability of TEG AGSs.
3. Develop an electronic communication module which controls the electricity storage in batteries and uses this electricity to control the state of the EC coating of EC VG.
4. Fabricate and experimentally characterise TEG AGS using ISO standard based on the optimised design for achieving the designed insulation and energy conversion efficiency.
