Structural color coatings for high performance BIPV

Abstract

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) offer aesthetics and freedom of design for architects and home owners. This can accelerate implementation and free up new spaces for solar energy harvesting at building level, which is a necessary step towards a climate neutral built environment. Colored solar panels with high conversion efficiency and low cost price are an important development for large scale market penetration of BIPV. Here we report a solution processed structural color coating for solar panels and solar collectors. We show that virtually any color can be prepared, that the desired coating stack can be designed using optical calculations and that the exact color can be produced via a low cost solution process. Furthermore, we show that the light transmission for the colored glass plates is still very high, exceeding commonly used absorbing colors and enables very high solar cell efficiency. The colored PV panels have been tested in real environment and via accelerated lifetime testing for 3 years without any performance decline or degradation.