From the beginning, the drive involved collaboration.
The initial grant went to two chemists: Patrick, and Professor John Gilbertson, two physicists: Brad Johnson, now Western’s provost, and Janelle Leger, now dean of the College of Science and Engineering, and a mathematician, McDowall. Eventually, business and industrial design students got involved, too. In 2015, a team of chemistry, engineering, industrial design and business students won a $75,000 P3 award from the Environmental Protection Agency to continue work on the project and investigate potential commercial concepts. Through business plan competitions and public presentations, their work helped draw attention to the new technology and attract industry interest.
“Now the arts are getting involved, too. How wonderful is that?” Patrick says.
Hafthor Yngvason, director of the Western Gallery, was eager for the new windows.
“I found it really quite exciting for two reasons. This was a scientific experiment right here in the entrance way to the gallery, and also to do something interesting with this glass cube that we have, which is the entrance to the gallery, and right now it is not visually interesting.” Associate Professor of Design Paula Airth came up with the arrangement of the six windows. If things go well, Yngvason would love to see the whole cube covered in colorful solar windows.
“I like it when art and science come together this way,” he says.
For now, the electricity from the windows is dedicated to collecting the data on how much energy they generate day-to-day. There’s a lot Korus and Bergren need to find out about how the windows perform.
Not only are the Western Gallery windows the biggest UbiQD has installed, they are the only ones outside the southwest U.S. And sunshine in Bellingham works a little differently.
In one way, the conditions are better. Because sunlight strikes us at a lower angle this far north, a vertical surface might be able to collect more light, Bergren says. But then, there’s less sunlight to be had. Winter days are short, and clouds, fog, and rain are the norm. Bellingham gets an average of 157 sunny days a year, while Los Alamos gets 276.