On March 19th, the 7th China Industry Award was announced in Beijing. A company from Chengdu won the highest award in China’s industrial field with their self-developed technology of electricity-generating glass.
What kind of glass can generate electricity? As soon as the reporter walked into the lobby of Chengdu Zhongjian Materials, the attention was immediately drawn to a piece of glass. The company’s general manager, Pan Jingong, told the reporter that even in weak indoor lighting conditions, this 2-square-meter electricity-generating glass can generate 270 degrees of electricity annually, and only two or three pieces can meet a family’s annual electricity needs.
Pan Jingong said that this large-area cadmium telluride glass was independently developed and produced by their company, and the secret of its electricity generation lies in its core raw material – tellurium ore.
As the inventor of electricity-generating glass, Pan Jingong brought a complete set of cadmium telluride film electricity generation theory in the 1990s, refused a million-dollar salary abroad and returned to China. With the strong support of the government, this technology has gradually been industrialized. In 2017, Pan Jingong’s team developed the world’s largest single-area cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass, winning 34 patents, of which 19 invention patents belong entirely to China, achieving the “Made in China” of cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass.
Pan Jingong described traditional photovoltaic technology is like a “steamed bun”, sandwiching the battery between glass. The cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass technology “grows” cadmium telluride “onto” the glass, like mixing scallions with dough, making electricity-generating glass into “scallion oil pancake”.
A piece of originally insulated ordinary glass, while transforming into a semiconductor material that can conduct electricity and generate electricity, also has higher strength than ordinary glass. In Chengdu Zhongjian Materials, the electricity-generating glass remains undamaged and has very stable electricity-generating performance after being hit by a 45-kilogram lead ball.
As a new green building material, cadmium telluride glass subverts traditional glass industry technology. In 2018, China’s first large-area electricity-generating glass production line built by Chengdu Zhongjian Materials was put into operation in Shuangliu, Chengdu. This is also the world’s first 100-megawatt large-area cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass production line. The production line has independent intellectual property rights of Industry 4.0, marking that China has mastered the core technology of large-area cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass leading the world.
Currently, Chengdu Zhongjian Materials’ annual production capacity of cadmium telluride electricity-generating glass is about 100 megawatts. According to estimates, the annual electricity generation can reach 113.77 million kilowatt-hours, saving 39,138 tons of standard coal and reducing 118,967 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Pan Jingong said that by 2023, the company will not only increase the proportion of green building materials in domestic stock building renovations and new building projects, but also enter markets in Germany, France, Italy, and other countries to promote China’s green energy technology to more places in the world.
Source: CCTV News Client