In the future “smart cities” that are predicted to be built during this decade, it is logical to expect that dozens of “smart buildings” capable of on-site façade-based energy generation will be constructed. Even though each building might harvest between 1 and 5 MWh of energy each sunny day, dozens of interconnected smart buildings will then be able to share their energy on-demand, preventing at least the worst of possible blackout effects in vital infrastructure objects eg. hospitals.

These city-scale distributed generation networks will harvest dozens of MWh each day per suburb, potentially replacing the need for building conventional solar farms and lossy long-range transmission cables in areas outside of CBD zones. A world of opportunities also exists for the engineering of various new device types, both façade-integrated and designed for use inside buildings, from self-powered blinds and building climate control sensors, to internet routers, security cameras and sensors, wireless chargers, and the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.