Tesla Glass

[Shock-On-T]

IF that new technology can be scaled up to mass production, and IF it can be produced at a reasonable cost, it offers only a relatively low 10% maximum efficiency (because those cells only create power from small fractions of the non-visible spectrum) when positioned at the optimal angle relative to the sun, and in real life use the efficiency will be much less because car windows will rarely be positioned optimally and cars are often parked under cover.

In real life the amount of solar power that would be produced by 2 square meters of vehicle glass with those solar cells in them would be trivial and the cost would certainly be non-trivial.

I hope they prove me wrong. But when viewed rationally, transparent solar cells in vehicle glass makes no sense.

Probably not, but whether it makes sense or not depends on the cost and amount of energy that could be produced.
In the end The Physics always wins, and energy is the only currency.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I think your numbers are off.

1 x 5 x 2 x 0.1 = 1kWh a day, not 5kWh.

From this page: New Solar Panel Material Could Make SolarCity’s Gigafactory Hyper Efficient



So at 25% efficiency and 2m2 of glass, that's 500 watts. Times 5 hours is 2.5kWh.
At 10% efficiency and 2m2 of glass, that's just 200 watts, times 5 hours is just 1kWh.

Awkward
Er, I meant to say 50% efficiency? Sigh, I know it's too late...

 

[HankLloydRight]

Awkward
Er, I meant to say 50% efficiency? Sigh, I know it's too late...

It's OK. I just remember from all the Fisker hate threads here that people did the exact same analyses for their solar panel and came up with even lower estimates for kWh put back into the battery every day... so when I saw 5kWh for 2m2 of panels, I knew something had to be way off.

So I think the cost and complexity of this type of thing will always outweigh the trickle charge something like that generates. There's also the issue of parking outside all day. My car is in the garage most of the time, so even if the Tesla PVs were efficient, it would really only help a small subset of owners living in sunny areas.

 

[Shock-On-T]

My numerical wandering notwithstanding, I do envisage a future where energy is harvested in every tiny way possible, and a big battery like a Tesla makes a good place to funnel it.
There are organic dye films with a few percent efficiency at the moment that might make a nice "opticoat" alternative. Peltier cells rescuing heat energy from hot tyres, piezoelectrics making electricity from road vibration and so on.

 

[malcolm]

I said in another thread the windscreen will be a transparent Television screen for all info to appear on their. Augmented reality.

Very interesting. Obviously you would need to distort the info-graphics so that they read correctly from the driver's position in relation to the inside surface of the curved windshield.

Presumably trapezoid/keystone/curvature settings would be stored as part of the driver profile.

You can make anything appear correct from a particular viewpoint of a flat or curved surface.

 

[Xminus6]

Not sure why everyone thinks it would have to be limited to cars. Tesla has shown that they're more of an energy company than a car company. If they're able to manufacture glass panes with transparent PV generation, the market is much greater outside the arena of cars. Office buildings come to mind.

 

[Trips]

Was the nuclear bomb blast proof glass from tonight Semi presentation a Tesla Glass product? I wonder if we will see this make its way over to the cars or maybe already in the Model 3.

 

[MP3Mike]

Was the nuclear bomb blast proof glass from tonight Semi presentation a Tesla Glass product? I wonder if we will see this make its way over to the cars or maybe already in the Model 3.

I think so, he called it "Tesla Armored Glass".

 

[unbelievable]

What is ‘Tesla Glass’?

Whatever it is, it’ll be rose-tinted.