Solar Power Future for Glass Pyramids?
Mar 8th, 2010 | By Editor | Category: Latest HeadlinesTROY, N.Y. – Cityscapes of glass-clad buildings gleaming in the sun make Anna Dyson think about wasted energy.
Dyson heads the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, or CASE, a research consortium that wants to turn office windows into multifaceted solar power generators. Their “integrated concentrating dynamic solar facade” consists of grids of clear pyramids that help focus the sun’s rays to generate energy. It would essentially make buildings look as if they were draped in giant jeweled curtains.
A prototype gets a real-world tryout after the opening last week of an eco-friendly research building in Syracuse. Researchers at CASE — a collaborative research group involving Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and the international architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — call it a step toward exploiting the huge but largely untapped “green” resource of building exteriors.
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