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Konarka Technologies and Arch Aluminum & Glass have launched the first curtain wall pilot project using Konarka Power Plastic into a wall structure at Arch's office building in Tamarac, Florida. This latest use of the technology will further promote the use of coloured glass photovoltaics. The solar panels will make a total of 1.5kW of power and are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2009.

"The purpose of this project is to test the performance and robustness of our solar panel solution for a curtain wall application with a variety of glass and window configurations under a wide range of environmental and insolation conditions," commented Dr. Terri Jordan, vice president of business development at Konarka. "The yielded data and information will guide our development of the first-of-its-kind vision application, a transparent, colored solar glass panel, and we are pleased to launch this first-class pilot installation with Arch."

The curtain wall is an array of solar panels, glass and aluminum, with a peak output of approximately 40W per panel. The yielded data from this project will be shared with architects, building developers and owners as well as alpha and beta field-testing customers selected in 2010-2011.

"Integrating 'active solar glass' into a wall structure allows us to make use of a typical manufacturing building by giving it the ability to generate its own energy," commented Arch's vice president of marketing, Max Perilstein. "This pilot facility and Konarka's flexible, light-weight solar material are allowing us to move forward in the feasibility and development of a solar solution that will add tremendous energy-producing value to a wall structure."