Next Energy upgrades pilot production line on OPV windows
By Amanda Marroquin
Special to the Business Times
Next Energy Technologies, a Goleta-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology company, has upgraded its pilot production line to now produce 40” x 60” laminated transparent clean energy-producing windows.
The company uses grey coating, power generation, and in-line manufacturing to make its innovative windows which are now the largest windows of its kind produced across the world.
“This milestone is further evidence to an industry hungry for a solution that our combination of OPV coatings and advanced manufacturing processing is working, scaling, and can be rapidly deployed,” said Daniel Emmett, Co-Founder, Executive Chairman, and CEO of NEXT in a press release.
Next’s OPV-coated windows will generate clean energy, allowing buildings to be more sustainable. The windows can offset between 20% and 25% of the energy from commercial buildings.
Next Technologies is leading the glass industry with its pilot production. Glass industry innovators look forward to producing solar-energy-producing windows that maintain high-quality performance and full-scale vision, and the new pilot production is headed in that direction.
“The combination of highest quality aesthetics, power generation, and integration with the glass supply chain is a game changer in the push towards designing Net Zero buildings,” stated Andy Cohen, Gensler Co-Chairman in a press release. “Just mid-last year, we were demonstrating NEXT’s 27” x 35” OPV windows at our office in LA, and with this larger window format, we have sustainable building projects in our sights.”
Next’s task now is to get UL safety and performance certifications and transition from their pilot into full production after they demonstrate their installations to their US and European partners.
“It’s a proof point that builds high confidence in our path to enabling 60” x 120” commercial production,” said Emmett in a press release.
