This Glass Generates Electricity — But You Can See Through It

This video explores how an American company is turning ordinary-looking architectural glass into a surface that can generate electricity. NEXT Energy Technologies has developed transparent organic photovoltaic windows that use a thin OPV coating integrated directly into the glass, allowing visible light to pass through while converting part of the incoming sunlight into electrical power. After years of scaling the technology from small laboratory prototypes to full-size 40-by-60-inch windows, the company installed six working units across roughly 100 square feet of facade at its Santa Barbara headquarters in 2025. The concept could be especially valuable for office towers, airports, hotels, and other buildings where roof space is limited but enormous vertical glass surfaces are exposed to sunlight. However, major challenges remain: NEXT currently targets around 3.5% conversion efficiency for its first commercial vision-glass product, far below conventional silicon solar panels, while long-term durability, manufacturing scale, cost, and the trade-off between transparency and power still need to be proven. Rather than replacing rooftop solar, this technology could turn windows, skylights, and building facades into additional sources of electricity that were previously doing nothing but letting light inside.