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With oil prices soaring higher and higher, and businesses everywhere wanting a piece of the “going green” PR pie, it’s making more economic sense to invest in alternative energies every day. This may very well explain what’s going on with the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago, which is slated to become the world’s tallest solar farm.
So, how is this going to happen? Well, while you may think that they would simply slap a few solar panels to the roof of the building, that would not provide nearly enough electrical power to make the project worth it. Instead, Willis Tower will utilize “photovoltaic glass,” which is essentially see-thru solar panels. If the initial project, which will have these photovoltaic glass panels replacing standard windows on the 56th floor of the tower, is a success then the project could grow to a point where the building is generating two megawatts.
Assuming this works, it could be a huge achievement in terms of advancing solar energy. One of the biggest complaints was that it took entirely too much real estate to generate enough solar power to be worth the investment, but if that energy can be harnessed by building upwards instead of outwards, then just about every major city in the country has one or two potential solar farms already in place.
