The Vertical Power Plant: How Solar Glass is Rewiring Our Cities—Promise, Paradox, and Power
The Vertical Power Plant: How Solar Glass is Rewiring Our Cities—Promise, Paradox, and Power We stand at the precipice of an architectural revolution—not with flying cars or holographic facades, but with something far more consequential: windows that generate electricity. What was once dismissed as science fiction has metastasized into steel-and-glass reality across global skylines. The humble window, for millennia a passive aperture for light and air, is transforming into an active energy harvester. This shift transcends aesthetics; it represents a fundamental reimagining of urban infrastructure in an age of climate emergency and energy insecurity. Yet this transformation is fraught with contradictions: solar glass remains less efficient than rooftop panels, yet skyscrapers possess exponentially more vertical surface area; it promises invisibility yet often demands visible compromises; it reduces cooling loads while sometimes increasing them. As cities from Shanghai to Mumba...