SolarWindow Technologies, Inc. is expanding product development to include applying its electricity-generating coatings onto flexible glass – as thin as a business card (only 0.1-millimeter-thick) – that is flexible enough to be bent without breaking or cracking. The company estimates that the world’s first transparent, electricity-generating flexible glass conservatively represents a $25 billion market.
 
Integrating transparent SolarWindow coatings with flexible glass creates new product opportunities for curved and non-flat surfaces in automotive, aircraft, and military applications. Applying SolarWindow coatings on flexible glass allows for the flexibility of plastic with the durability, scratch-resistance, and ease of maintenance of rigid glass.
 
“Flexible glass could play a big role in window, canopy, smart building, and other building and transportation products. We believe that flexible glass can serve an even more valuable purpose by generating electricity using SolarWindow coatings,” said John Conklin, president and CEO of SolarWindow Technologies, Inc.
 
This announcement marks an important expansion of SolarWindow products, where engineers envision coating flexible glass using methods they have been developing for rigid flat glass, such as high speed (roll-to-roll) and large area (sheet-to-sheet) manufacturing.
 
Recently, SolarWindow reached a major product development milestone by conducting tests that showed its coatings successfully performed under test conditions designed to simulate the high pressure and temperatures of the autoclave manufacturing processes used by commercial glass and window producers. Autoclave manufacturing is a common method of production for flat, curved, tempered and solar glass fabrication.