Thanks for sharing nice stuff..

Brian J. Lally, P.E.

Thank you for your comment. I’m sorry for the late response, should have checked the site more often. It’s good to hear that you didn’t mind Shanghai’s summer heat too much. I visited Nanjing in August, just 2-3 hours by train from Shanghai, and it was certainly hot. But Nanjing has many trees, which helps. I think it’s a great opportunity for students to get involved in as future-oriented a project like PV glazing in China. But I can imagine that’s still a difficult sell in a market where fast and cheap construction seems to dominate – though with increasingly many high-end exceptions.

Has PV glazing made any significant inroads in the U.S. yet? In the book “Window Systems for High-Performance Buildings” by researchers Steve Selkowitz and John Carmody, they mention that current prices and energy rates limit building-integrated PV to prestige buildings “although PV-integrated cladding costs are comparable to marble” (see http://commercialwindows.org/materials_tech4.php for an excerpt from that book). I was surprised, though, when at the Glasstec 2008 fair in Germany PV façades where all the buzz. Sure, Germany has juicy subsidies for PV, but a majority of attendees were from elsewhere (many from China) and there seemed to be great interest.

One more thought: you might be interested in contacting the organizers of the International Energy Efficiency & Zero Energy Building Envelope Conference that was held this March in Beijing. This conference was sponsored by DOE and the China Architecture Design and Research Group. The US contact is Bipin Shah of WinBuild Inc (winbuild.usa@gmail.com). I’m sure that there will be follow-up activities to this conference, so I’d encourage you to ask Mr. Shah about future opportunities for meeting potential Chinese partners.

Cheers,

Nils

I spent the summer in China, mostly in Shanghai. I was traveling as an embedded project sponsor with American and Chinese engineering and business students who were assisting me with a business plan for my product-Integrated Framing. I had received my first patent in China, and was looking for manufacturers of photovoltaic glazing and window systems.

One manufacturer was trying to meet the safety requirements for curtainwall glazing with just a thin sandwich of glass,PV film and a backer sheet of plastic. I suggested they try to make insulated glazing units instead. I am still baffled at how little interest there is in PV glazing as opposed to roof panels where the market has quickly become saturated.

Personally,I loved China, heat and all. As a foreigner, I was allowed to turn the AC up at our hotel, but I quickly adapted to the heat during the day. Sleeping was harder so I would just cool the bedroom for an hour or so.

I would appreciate hearing more about which manufacturers are most receptive to energy efficiency measures.