You may be surprised to learn that the color of solar panels is not just an aesthetic choice by the manufacturers. Solar panels are black and blue because those are the natural colors that silicon becomes during the manufacturing process. Additionally, manufacturers, installers, and the majority of customers are focused on efficiency, and black or blue solar panels, due to the manufacturing process, are the most efficient, the most widely used, so also the most affordable.
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The two primary kinds of solar panel colors, black and blue, are monocrystalline and polycrystalline. Monocrystalline solar cells that are black are made out of silicon where each solar cell is a single crystal. This makes them considerably more efficient, especially since black as a color is more light-absorbent than the blue color. Blue solar panels are made from polycrystalline silicon where a single cell contains several silicon crystals, and the way those crystals interact with sunlight makes them appear blue. Polycrystalline technology used to be cheaper than monocrystalline, which is why you are more likely to see blue panels in older installations.
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Solar panels can be different colors, but at a significant sacrifice to efficiency and affordability. Dyes and coatings can be used to change the color of solar panels. However, dyes and coatings, as stated, also dramatically reduce panel efficiency. Colored solar panels created with this method are as much as 45% less efficient than the standard blue or black solar panels. Dyes and coatings also do not handle tough conditions well, so it&#;s likely that colored panels will eventually lose their vibrance over a panel&#;s 25-year lifespan. Thus, this aesthetic improvement isn&#;t worth the lost efficiency and greater cost for the average homeowner
A variety of new technologies are being experimented with to create more efficient colored panels, and a wider range of colors to suit more environments, color schemes, and aesthetics. For example, researchers in the Netherlands have developed a soft-print lithography technique that allows panels to reflect a specific color. Unfortunately, this still reduces efficiency, but only by about 10% compared to the 45% of other coating methods. With continued improvement, they aim to reduce that loss in efficiency to as little as 2%.
So, while we don&#;t have solar panels in all the colors of the rainbow available yet, the technology is definitely being worked on.
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Solar panels are blue due to the type of silicon (polycrystalline) used for certain solar panels. The blue color is mainly due to an anti-reflective coating that helps improve the absorbing capacity and efficiency of the solar panels. Black solar panels (monocrystalline) are often more efficient as black surfaces more naturally absorb light.
The vast majority of modern solar photovoltaic panels are made using silicon, a non-metallic element that is used in most modern electronics. Silicon is used in solar panels partly due to its ability to absorb most wavelengths of light and produce an electric charge. We can also manufacture near-perfect crystals at a relatively low cost. Differences in solar panels come from many sources, mainly the purity of the silicon used in the module. Most solar panels have a blue hue and are made with polycrystalline silicon, while the smaller percentage that appears black is made with monocrystalline silicon.
The silicon used in polycrystalline solar cells is made from raw silicon that has been melted and poured into a square mold. This process doesn't align the silicon perfectly, which results in the formation of many individual silicon crystals within the mold. The nature of the respective silicon crystals also produces the speckled, glimmering look and blue color characteristic of polycrystalline panels.
The polycrystalline cell manufacturing process leads to less waste and energy use than that needed to produce monocrystalline cells. As a result, polycrystalline solar panels are less expensive and much more widely used. Due to the lower cost of polycrystalline solar panel production, about 90 percent of the solar panels on the market today are polycrystalline; consequently, most solar panels have a blue hue.
The silicon used to make monocrystalline solar cells has a high level of purity. The silicon is all oriented the same way in a monocrystalline solar cell, creating one large silicon crystal. Because of how light interacts with a monocrystalline silicon layer, monocrystalline solar panels appear black. Aligning the silicon into one crystal, known as the Czochralski process, is energy-intensive and results in some wasted silicon. As a result, monocrystalline panels cost more than polycrystalline solar panels.
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