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Live in an apartment in NYC and would love some way of turning our windows into solar panels. They only thing I've seen is a ~$100 device from a company called grouphug (no affiliation) whereby a small solar panel is stuck to a window via suction cup and can charge a phone (I believe it has a small in-built battery). Laudable but I wonder if it would return the investment.

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It won't. These systems are quite large (a single solar panel is approximately 1.2m by 1.7m (4 to 6 ft ?) and even if you put it outside with direct southern exposure and no shade it takes 2-5 years to recoup the investment cost. In the US, you pay less for electricity (in most places) so it would take longer. Behind a window, generated energy will be way less.

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