Despite all our technological leaps and bounds, wood remains one of our most-reliable and most often used building materials. Not without good reason, it’s cheap and readily available, and renewable for the most part. Simple and reliable. However, very soon a whole lot could be changing.

Researchers at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a transparent wooden material they consider safe and suitable enough for mass production. While wood is truly a staple in the construction industry, it has never been the first or the most practical choice for our windows, but that could be about to change.

The wood in question is actually a wooden veneer that is granted it’s transparency by removing the lignin, a component in its cell walls.

Professor Lars Berglund at the Institute’s Wallenberg Wood Science Centre says: "When the lignin is removed, the wood becomes beautifully white. But because wood is not naturally transparent, we achieve that effect with some nanoscale tailoring,"

The scientists propose that the material could be used for windows, or areas in buildings where the main aim is to allow light in, whilst maintaining a degree of privacy. But it doesn’t stop there.

“No one has previously considered the possibility of creating larger transparent structures for use as solar cells”, Berglund says.

"Transparent wood is a good material for solar cells, since it's a low-cost, readily available and renewable resource. This becomes particularly important in covering large surfaces with solar cells."

This means that it could not only bring the cost of manufacture down but simultaneously improve a building’s carbon footprint by replacing silica-based glass with wood, while still letting in plenty of light.