ClearVue solar glass accepts Low-E coating after lamination

At AGC Interpane’s glass facility in Germany, finished solar-glass units went through a familiar industrial routine: cleaning, coating and testing. ClearVue says its Gen 3 Vision Glass was processed on the same line, with the same settings used for conventional float glass, after photovoltaic cells had already been laminated into the units.

The new step concerns a soft Low-E — low-emissivity — coating, a layer used to control how much solar heat enters a building. ClearVue says it can now apply that coating to surface 4, the room-facing side of a double-glazed unit, where it provides the greatest reduction in solar heat gain. The company says no change to the coating process was required.

That matters because the glass is not just a window. It is building-integrated photovoltaic glass, designed to generate electricity while remaining transparent. ClearVue says its Gen 3 units can produce more than 50 W per square metre while maintaining up to 80% visible light transmittance. The company says other BIPV products typically put the coating on surface 5 of a triple-glazed unit, where thermal performance is reduced.

And then, concretely? Architects and engineers can keep specifying the performance they need, while glass processors can use existing production infrastructure. That lowers a practical adoption barrier, although the result so far is a capability validated at AGC Interpane and a claim from ClearVue, not evidence of broad commercial deployment.

ClearVue says it is currently the only BIPV supplier able to combine this coating position with renewable-energy generation from the same glazing unit. Its Gen 3 Solar Vision Glass has also secured major international certifications, while the company’s ClearVue-Helios rooftop panel was added to the Clean Energy Council’s approved products list. Those milestones support market access, but the coating development is the technical move that brings the product closer to conventional commercial glass practice.