Head of the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), Anna Dyson and her team in New York have a dream to turn office windows into multifaceted solar power generators. To help save wasted energy they have created an “integrated concentrating dynamic solar façade” which consists of clear pyramids that help focus the sun’s rays to generate energy- also making the buildings look as if they had been draped in jewels.
To contrast the typical flat solar panels, CASE’s creating is designed to give several benefits:

• With a lens that focuses sunlight onto a tiny solar cell makes this more efficient in generating energy than traditional cells.
• The pyramids will rotate to track the sun and pumped water will be incorporated to cool the cells and maximize efficiency. The cooling water will also capture the wasted heat for hot water and radiant heat in a building.
• The pyramids would assist in lighting by deflecting or diffusing the sun’s rays meaning more natural light could be generated inside the building and would down play glare.
• Would benefit less than optimal solar climates.

The system has already been tested on an RPI rooftop and now, a prototype has been built into the facade of the Syracuse headquarters of the Center of Excellence in Environmental & Energy Systems, a public-private research partnership devoted to sustainability research.