Video Pick: Solar Panels Any Color You Like With No Visible Cells Or Connections.
Remember the days when solar panels all looked the same and stood out, some thought, like a sore appendage, not so fashionably distinguishing your house or building as one creating energy and helping the environment? Well, those days will soon be over. Swiss company CSEM has a new technology enabling solar PV panels to be created in a range of colors, including all white.
This breakthrough technology will provide aesthetic options for the uber design conscious building owners and architects who think solar PV panels too ugly to incorporate into their rarefied building roofs or facades. With a rainbow of colors to choose from, Solar PV panels can be cleverly integrated into building design, so no one will realize they are even there. As the video above depicts, this advanced solar science can also be adapted for use on the sides of buses and other modes of transportation.
Colored Solar PV Panels using technology from CSEM
This "future is now" know-how can be applied on top of existing PV modules or integrated into new modules during assembly, on flat or curved surfaces. The solar technology can also be applied to other scientific fields such as consumer electronics (laptops).
If you choose to make your Solar PV panels white, the very fact that a white surface will reach lower temperature under the sun is an additional advantage. The visible light being reflected does not contribute to heat, thus a white solar cell is expected to work at temperatures 20-30° lower than standard PV modules. White PV modules have the added benefit of increased energy savings in buildings by keeping inner spaces cooler and reducing air conditioning costs. Several US cities, including NYC, have started to paint roofs white to reduce heat in hot weather. The more white roofs in Gotham that add some white solar panels the better. Talk about cool, pun intended!
