Abstract
This paper holds a critical review of current research activities dealing with smart architectural glazing worldwide. Hereafter, the main trends are analyzed and critically reported, with open issues, challenges, and opportunities, providing an accurate description of technological evolution of devices in time. This manuscript deals with some well-known, highly performing technologies, such as semitransparent photovoltaics and novel photoelectrochromic devices, the readiest, probably, to reach the final stage of development, to disclose the manifold advantages of multifunctional, smart glazing. The complex, overall effects of their building integration are also reported, especially regarding energy balance and indoor visual comfort in buildings.
Highlights
The progressive exhaustion of fossil fuels and the consequent biosphere alteration are strictly related to the dramatic growth of energy consumption
The need to reduce energy consumption and to develop new, less energy-intensive technologies, and the need to use more and more renewable resources, is largely motivated if one considers that the constructions require approximately 40% of the primary energy yearly used in the European continent [4]
Photoelectrochromic devices (PECDs), allowing for chromic transition, like common smart windows already on market, might be relevant players, since they would not need any external electric power source to work: they are capable of exploiting the available sun irradiance to generate electric energy by internal PV conversion and are capable of responsively modulating their transmittance [19,20,21]
Summary
The progressive exhaustion of fossil fuels and the consequent biosphere alteration are strictly related to the dramatic growth of energy consumption. The need to reduce energy consumption and to develop new, less energy-intensive technologies, and the need to use more and more renewable resources, is largely motivated if one considers that the constructions require approximately 40% of the primary energy yearly used in the European continent [4] Such a huge energy consumption is especially due to Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) and lighting in buildings. The dynamic behavior of glazing can be the natural evolution of novel PV devices towards “intelligent building skins” In this compelling roadmap, photoelectrochromic devices (PECDs), allowing for chromic transition, like common smart windows already on market, might be relevant players, since they would not need any external electric power source to work: they are capable of exploiting the available sun irradiance to generate electric energy by internal PV conversion and are capable of responsively modulating their transmittance [19,20,21]
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