Exterior photovoltaic panels with 'simulate style'

• Dutch start-up Solar Visuals and also the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) have actually created brand-new "resemble layout" exterior modules that reproduce the attributes of structure surface areas. Lenneke Slooff-Hoek, an elderly scientist for TNO, told pv publication that the panels can be made in any kind of dimension or shade at 13% effectiveness, adding that they have a partly transparent colored layer made from tiny dots.

Dutch building group BAM stated last week that it has actually mounted start-up Solar Visuals' facade solar components at its head office in Bunnik, in the province of Utrecht.

The modules-- which were originally established by Dutch architectural company UNStudio, in collaboration with TNO, Design Innovation Group (DIG), and printing business TS Visuals-- are unique as well as attractive, according to BAM. "The modules have an art-like appearance when looking from nearby," Lenneke Slooff-Hoek, an elderly researcher for TNO, informed pv publication.

The panels can be produced in any size or color pattern, so they ought to not be viewed as usual colored components, Slooff-Hoek declared.

" Most of the colored components on the marketplace utilize a ceramic covering on the glass to offer the panel the homogeneous colored appearance," she claimed, adding that a few products use various colored prints inside the components. The difference is in the method which the shade is created.

" Where the other multicolor innovations make use of a full-area print with a particular transparency, the freshly developed facade solar modules have a partially transparent tinted layer made from tiny dots," Slooff-Hoek described. "From close-by you see mostly the dot pattern, yet when considering a distance you see the picture show up."

Various patterns, or rasterizations, can be made use of. The choice depends upon the appearance of the image and the checking out range. The components replicate the shade of the facades, but additionally their look. "For this reason, we are dealing with brand-new front side products that are less shiny than glass and even can have a surface structure," Slooff-Hoek said.

The very first components were based on metal wrap-through (MWT) back contact technology that was originally established by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). To reduce the losses, the tinted dot pattern was created to overlap with the front side metallization of the cells, which provided the modules their regular art-like look when looking from nearby. In the future, according to Slooff-Hoek, it was also made use of in combinations with Si-PV innovations with different cell architectures, although the common dot pattern stayed.

Each panel includes 60 PERC monocrystalline cells, a power output of 220 Wp, and a maximum system voltage of 1,000 V. The performance of about 13% is roughly 70% of the performance of a regular 60-cell PERC component of a similar size.

Solar Visuals is currently producing the panels at a number of locations. "So far, just a restricted number was produced for tiny pilot jobs," Slooff-Hoek claimed. "But Solar Visuals is prepared for scaling-up."

TNO has been testing various type of ingenious solar panels, including BIPV modules with different colors, at its SolarBEAT screening center at Eindhoven University of Technology since 2014. In a recent interview with pv publication, TNO scientist Roland Valckenborg stated that colored modules are still more costly than standard PV components, as a result of low-volume manufacturing, yet prices are anticipated to drop as customer interest boosts and also volumes rise.