Colored PV Modules

Summary

This chapter covers the physics of colors in photovoltaics (PV) modules. It presents various options to realize colored silicon PV modules, as the largest market segment for PV modules. The chapter focuses on colored graphic designs on PV modules and the performance of these PV modules. It describes thin‐film interference, which is a typical optical process related to colors in surfaces on top of PV modules. There are several options for coloring the different layers in a PV module, and the inks and pigments that can be used depend on which layer or material the color is applied. Coloring of glass for PV modules can be divided into bulk coloring and surface coloring. In case of bulk coloring, a metallic salt is added to the glass mold, giving the color to the final product. In this way, only homogeneous colored glass sheets can be obtained.