The Savitribai Phule Pune University is reportedly gearing up to inaugurate country’s first solar panel walled building.
The building will have glass facade mounted with panels made of cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells instead of the silicon-based cells.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the facility , being pegged as “Experience Centre” by the university’s energy studies department on 8th March 2019.
TOI citing department official notes that the panels would be mounted on the glass facade of the building covering an area of 200 sqft.
Director of School of Energy Studies at SPPU Sandesh Jadkar speaking to the publication said “Unlike the silicon solar panels, the Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic cells are transparent and bring in natural light. Because the walls are made of glass, the building would also give the people inside the structure a feeling of being in an open space.”
As per official cited above the walls would generate 19 units of electricity per day. “We consume this much energy to run a four-tonne air conditioner, TV, projector, induction stove light and computers, among others.”
The report states that the building is a prototype model funded by SolarScape Enterprises.
Jadkar further added “The building would be used to research on improving the efficiency of CdTe. In Pune, we have many structures with a glass façade. Hopefully, this model would give them an idea of how to use these CdTe imprinted glasses. If done right, dependability on clean energy could be improved.”