Project Proposal

Photovoltaics, the latest devolvement in solar energy, may not be universal just yet. With any luck, however, that won’t be the case forever. Not only is this technology good for the environment, it’s good for the economy as well. By selling the extra energy it collects back to the electric companies, photovoltaics eventually pay for themselves. The most surprising upside to all of this is that they even work aesthetically. From China to Madrid, beautiful photovoltaic structures are starting to pop up. Check out one Paris apartment building, covered almost entirely in Photo voltaic cells (1). Another example is the GreenPix building in Beijing. Covered in hundreds of LED's the building is powered through solar energy. (2)

My project would follow this specific story:

As I walk up to the apartment building, the first thing I notice is the warm shades of red and yellow. It is a sunny day, and where the sunlight hits the building, the photovoltaic panels glow yellow. The entire building glows with warm colors to show the heat of the day. Along the side, the current temp is displayed. As I reach the building, I press my hand to the side. Around my hand, the building glows yellow to display the body heat. When I use only one finger, the concentration of heat brings up a small display that shows my temperature. The temperature will be read by the photovoltaic cells which will also give energy to the entire building. The display color and numbers will be shown using hundreds of RGB LED’s, like the GreenPix building in China. The building will be extremely narrow to preserve heat, similar to the methods of the Paris apartment building.