Solar skylight launches ClearVue into residential market

A luxury home being built in the ACT will feature eight solar power generating skylights made from the PV-integrated glass of Australian company ClearVue Technologies – a first for the ASX-listed company.

ClearVue says the home, which was designed by Hugh Gordon Architect and is being built by Custom Apartments in conjunction with Elm Building Group, put in an order for $160,000 worth of glazing from ClearVue, although not all of it solar-integrated.

Alongside standard non-solar double-glazed doors and windows and a glass pool enclosure, ClearVue will supply eight fixed solar PV powered skylights of 1.4m x 0.78m in size.

First time in a residential project

ClearVue head of investor relations Earle Harper says the sale marks the first use of this particular product in a residential project, and a key commercialisation milestone for the company for a number of reasons.

“Importantly, it’s a simpler sale for the company to support its commercialisation journey to sales of commercial building façade sales,” Harper said.

“The sale whilst a sizeable order for a single residence project more importantly demonstrates the flexibility of the ClearVue PV glazing product across market categories and segments,” he said.

“And [it] will provide yet another reference site for the company, including in this case, to be used
to demonstrate the skylight and residential market applicability for the product.”

Skylight power

ClearVue’s BIPV technology incorporates a clear lamination layer between glass panels that drives the incoming wavelengths of UV and IR light to PV cells located around the edge of an integrated window unit to generate electricity.

According to the company’s website, each square metre of ClearVue glass is currently rated to generate about 30Wp of electric power, subject to all of the normal factors that affect the output of regular solar panels, such as orientation.

The approximate formula for a skylight, the website says, is as follows: Daily Power = 30 Wp/m2 * (Number of m2) * (Number of peak sunshine hours for the location).

In Perth, for example, “10 north-facing roof-mounted windows of total area of 10 m2 will produce approximately 30W/m2*10m2*4.5h = 1350 Wh = 1.35 kWh of electric energy daily.”

So far, ClearVue’s commercial deployments have included a shopping centre in Perth, and a greenhouse at a high-profile eco-tourism and “wellness” project in Japan.

The Perth-based company has also successfully installed a “world-first” clear solar glass greenhouse at Murdoch University in Western Australia, pictured above, to demonstrate the product and its potential to advance agricultural research.