Original 2021 statement: We will soon have windows most everywhere that generate solar electricity, simply by being windows
What Jim has written about this
From “Daily Inspiration: Energy & Construction - “The future is all around you. It’s just waiting for someone to put it together!”” (August 2024)
Take the world of construction and energy. It’s a given that over the long term, most homes will be powered by solar power or wind power, with natural gas or other carbon energy sources merely acting as an ‘insurance policy;’ for times of variability. Battery storage technology will be at the heart of the technology setup that makes this crazy economical - storage costs have declined 97% in the last three decades, and continue to plummet. The home will contain some large massive energy storage battery - and your future car will also be a part of your home energy system. Pulling it all together will be the next evolution of your home thermostat such as your Nest or ecoBee - running some sophisticated software algorithm that will keep it all running, in sync, maximizing energy production.
The key thing with this trend is that solar power won’t just come from the solar on the roof - it will come from the very windows that are part of the home, as glass evolves to become a form of solar power generation. These windows will automatically darken with excessive external sunlight, to help cool the home. They look like regular glass windows, but act like solar panels, generating electricity from the sun. The cost to manufacture these new see-through window panes will start to plummet in the same way that other solar technology has - in other words, they will become dirt cheap, and to pardon the use of a phrase, as common as nails.
The opportunity is huge - right now, there are almost seven billion square meters of glass surfaces to be found in windows. Imagine that the glass in most new commercial, industrial, and residential construction is made of transparent solar panels. Imagine a massive retrofit of such technology given the cost path they are likely to follow. Transparent solar panels look like clear glass and let light through like regular windows. One estimate suggests solar windows and related transparent solar technologies could provide around 40% of energy demand in the United States. That’s a pretty big number.
From “Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”” (January 2023)
As I close out this series of 23 Trends for 2023, I’ve been thinking long and hard as to what the final, all-encompassing trend should be; to be honest, I’ve had several. But they’ve all had a common theme - all of us finally have the chance to look forward to what’s next , rather than just concentrating right now on what we need to do to get through. In a conference call with a client the other day, I was given a gift when he mentioned that in his mind, they weres finally able to move away from triage - fast, quick steps to simply survive - to thinking about their future again. That’s it!
We’ll probably soon have little robotic micro-drones regularly tending crops in agriculture
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: Energy & Construction - “The future is all around you. It’s just waiting for someone to put it together!”
Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”