H GLASS SA

Their core work

H GLASS SA is a Swiss glass technology company whose core business sits at the intersection of glass manufacturing and advanced photovoltaics — producing or developing transparent glass substrates and coatings that generate solar electricity while still admitting daylight. Their industrial expertise covers the materials science of integrating solar cell layers (dye-sensitized, perovskite, multi-junction) into actual glass products suitable for windows, facades, and building elements. In EU research consortia they serve as the industrial bridge between laboratory cell science and commercial building products, contributing manufacturing know-how and product validation capacity that academic partners cannot provide. Their market is the fast-growing building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector, where architectural glass replaces conventional opaque solar panels.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

H GLASS SA entered H2020 research in 2019 through IMPRESSIVE, focused on the cell-science fundamentals of transparent solar: dye-sensitized (DSSC) and perovskite materials in tandem configurations, with keywords anchored to individual cell components (dye, perovskite, PSC, DSSC). One year later, CITYSOLAR shifted the vocabulary decisively toward application and deployment: building-integrated photovoltaics, multi-junction efficiency, urban energy harvesting — the language of a product entering the market rather than a cell being designed in a lab. The trajectory is short but clear: from "how do we make a transparent solar cell?" to "how do we put one in a window in a city building?"

H GLASS SA is moving from foundational transparent PV cell research toward commercializable BIPV products for the construction and architecture sector, suggesting their next collaboration interests will be in product validation, pilot installations, and building certification rather than fundamental materials science.

How they like to work

H GLASS SA participates exclusively as a consortium partner — never as a project coordinator — which is consistent with an industrial company that brings specialized glass materials capacity rather than leading a research programme. Across two RIA projects they have engaged with 15 distinct partners, indicating involvement in well-populated, multi-institutional consortia typical of research-to-industry bridge projects. This suggests they are recruited to provide industrial validation, glass substrate testing, or manufacturing-scale input: a targeted specialist role rather than a generalist or administrative one.

H GLASS SA has connected with 15 unique consortium partners across 8 countries through just two projects, reflecting involvement in large, geographically diverse RIA consortia. Their Swiss base combined with pan-European collaborations suggests an outward-looking company comfortable operating within the EU research framework despite Switzerland's complex association status.

What sets them apart

H GLASS SA occupies a rare industrial niche: a glass company with direct expertise in photovoltaic integration, able to translate laboratory solar cell research into actual glazing products. Most EU solar research consortia are heavy on universities and cell scientists but lack partners who can tell you whether a cell architecture is manufacturable as a window — H GLASS SA fills that gap. For anyone building a BIPV, smart facades, or energy-positive buildings project, they bring the materials-to-product knowledge that turns a promising result into something an architect can specify.

Highlights from their portfolio

• IMPRESSIVE
  Tackles the fundamental challenge of combining two transparent solar cell technologies — dye-sensitized and perovskite — into a single tandem device, directly requiring H GLASS SA's glass substrate expertise for a breakthrough that could define next-generation transparent PV.
• CITYSOLAR
  Represents the commercial application endpoint for H GLASS SA's transparent glass work, targeting real urban energy harvesting through window-integrated multi-junction modules — the most deployment-ready project in their portfolio.