Let Your Windows Make Your Electricity

Renewable energy is cool - beyond the basic coolness of getting power from the sun, the wind, the ground, the ocean waves and who knows what else, renewable energy is constantly innovating, coming up with new and super-cool ways to make electricity cleanly and easily.

From TPM:

A start-up in Northern California is working on creating "solar windows" that could act as solar panels at the same time as blocking sunlight from entering office buildings to reduce their energy needs, according to a Sunday story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The company Pythagoras Solar is based in San Mateo, California, and it won an award from the "GE ecomagination Challenge," award of $100,000 last week for its idea.

The company makes a "window laced with solar cells," that could generate power for office buildings and shield offices from sunlight, thus reducing air conditioning costs.

The GE award is a "validation of three things -- that (the window) is unique, that it's feasible and it could have a big impact," Gonen Fink, Pythagoras' CEO told the Chronicle.

The technology is a class of equipment that seeks to replace parts of buildings with solar panels to generate energy. Other possibilities include window awnings and roofing tiles.

Some of Pythagoras' windows are already installed on Chicago's Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower.)

CEO Fink wouldn't reveal his system's cost per watt to the Chronicle, but he says that "for the typical customer" the system will pay for itself in three to five years.

He's excited about the technology, he says, because it could change the way buildings are built.

Fuck you, Big Coal. Fuck you, Big Oil. Fuck you, Fracking Natural Gas. And fuck every member of Congress who refuses to snatch billions of dollars in subsidies away from fossil fuels and use them to finance more super cool renewable energy research like this.