Colored solar panels arrive and have all these advantages

One of the elements that can play against solar panels, at least from an aesthetic point of view, is their monotony in terms of color. The solar panels are black and it is for an absorption reason, but soon we will begin to see something more colorful with the new colored solar panels.

A group of scientists from the American Chemical Society have overcome one of the main aesthetic limitations and present their innovative colored solar panels to the world without losing much efficiency.

Colored solar panels arrive and have all these advantages

So are the colored solar panels

The use of the color black for solar panels is not a simple whim or standardization for no reason. They are usually black in color because their job is to absorb light. In fact, precisely other previous attempts to color solar panels failed because it diminished their ability to absorb light and generate energy through it. Previous technologies that attempted to incorporate structural color gave panels an undesirable iridescence or were costly to implement on a large scale.

Paneles solares de colores

Tao Ma and Ruzhu Wang, researchers at the American Chemical Society (ACS), have developed a way to color solar panels using a structural material that is easy and inexpensive to apply. This team of chemical researchers sprayed a material called photonic glass onto the surface of the solar cells of the solar panel. Photonic glass was made of a thin, disordered layer of microscopic dielectric spheres of zinc sulfide. Although most light could pass through the photonic glass, certain colors were reflected depending on the size of the spheres.

The study published in ACS resulted in panels in three different colors: blue, green and purple . However, this innovation can still be improved to be used in the future in other shades. Although production can be scaled, researchers are now focused on optimizing other aspects, such as exploring ways to make colors more saturated, as well as methods to achieve a wider color gamut.

Colored but efficient

The great key to this research is that the use of photonic glass to develop different shades does not have a significant impact on the effectiveness to produce energy . Using the photonic glass system and zinc sulfide dielectric spheres, they created solar panels in shades of blue, green, and purple.

Paneles solares colores

In these more colorful solar panels, the power generation stood at a percentage of 21.5%, while the energy efficiency of the usual black solar panels would be 22.6% .

As for color, the researchers were able to verify that they would maintain their performance and color, even over time. The durability of the panels may vary depending on the materials used. In this case, the study found that the photonic glass layer maintains its color stable , which is good news for the future mass production of this product.