Wouldn’t you want them all to be black to maximize effectiveness? Damn marketing. In the not too distant future daily talk shows will have segments on which colours are fashionable this year for solar panels.
Sometimes historic buildings have a strict code to follow, this might help to modernize them while keeping the historic aesthetic.
But why? It’s not about heat absorbtion but photon collection
I’m no solar panel expert, just using common sense. If it is not heat conversion then I’m whistling in the wind. Black absorbs more heat, more quickly, but if it is not about heat, just light, then ignore this.
Energy at certain wavelengths hits the solar cell and migrates electrons in a flat plane. Thin wires grab those electrons to make current. Heat actually reduces the efficiency.
Solar panels that absord heat exist, those panels are used to heat water. For PV you want to capture photons that kick electrons from the valence band into the conduction band of the material to get an electric current. Basically the inverse of an LED, you turn light directly into electricity. Any heat here is wasted energy. The PV cells are optimised for specific frequency bands and in those bands they don’t reflect well. If you want to capture visible light the panels are appearing relatively dark.
Actually, photovoltaic solar panels work more efficiently when cold, heat makes them less efficient. I’ve read.
When can I buy them?? I’ve been reading about roof tile panels for ages, but I’ve never seen on win real life.
Maybe because the ones demonstrated by Elon Musk were made by an LA prop shop and never existed.
The ability to have energy generation from roof tiles is so damn cool!!! The solarpunk future is becoming more true every day, and I’m all for it!
It’s a waste of money. Most of the tiles will be in shade. PV panels are better and easily replaced if damaged by weather.
Tell me they’re not shiny enough to melt vinyl siding and I’m sold.
Man, that is a hugely misleading headline when casually glanced over. Not 95% efficiency; 95% of other panels…
Typical panels are about 20-24% efficient. So these roof tiles are like 19-22.5%. Not bad.
Edit: didn’t knew OP added the “compared to regular panels part”. Disregard the rest of this comment.
I think is a good title, it’s tells how compare against regular solar panels. Saying their absolute efficiency wouldn’t really tell a lot because not everyone knows what means having a 20% efficiency.
It’s poorly worded but anyone that thinks panels are anything close to 95% wasn’t paying attention. Even hydro power which just gravity and a turbine barely achieves 95%
But heat pumps are over 100%.
No.
The title implies that, somehow, colored solar panels hit 95% efficiency, compared to panels that are not colored. To be clear, it should say:
“Colored solar panels that mimic tiles roof achieve 95% of the efficiency of regular solar tiles”
Colored solar panels that mimic tiles roof hit 95% efficiency compared to regular solar tiles
Do they hit 95% of regular solar tiles efficiency? Or do they hit 95% efficiency, while regular solar tiles hit (presumably) less?
It is a clickbait title because it offers more than one interpretation. One is reasonable (and correct), but not punchy. The other is outlandish (and wrong) but draws the reader in on the off chance that it might be right. Hence the subsequent disappointment in the headline.
If you only see the “correct” interpretation, more power to you: you weren’t baited and thus had nothing to be disappointed by.
But the headline is, objectively, phrased to bait the click from a wide swath of readers who question if the “incorrect” interpretation just might be true.
It’s poorly worded to mislead into “actual efficiency”. People looking at solar panels need the real number, not how it compares to traditional ones. This is at worst misleadingly worded, or at best, poor journalism.
compared to regular solar tiles
That’s why I editorialized and added that bit
Oh, didn’t knew you added that.
People are just not paying any attention whatsoever.
or, you know, you can just put them somewhere else and use cables to transport electricity to the house, like it was done the last 100 years.
Still a great piece of tech. I think decentralizing power generation is better for both land use and for the individual.
These panels will be nice for areas with strict architectural laws
Have you ever been on a hot roof in summer? At least this puts that necessary but otherwise unused surface area to use.
On my way to buy a plot of land to save on energy bills 🚄
Yeah, but they aren’t doing that very fast. So gotta buy my own.
20% is what standard photovoltaics were doing a decade ago. I cannot wait until these are standard on all roofs in a few decades.
It’s 95% of regular panels, so it’s 5% worse.
I would go with regular panels in that case, unless they are shaped like tiles and can provide better coverage of the roof. 5% efficiency drop but 15% coverage increase could be worth it. But I expect install costs would be quite a bit higher
Imagine this + electric cars working as grid storage.
They still are, on average. This headline is just poorly worded or outright misleading.
deleted by creator
The article talks about colored graphics that can be applied to a panel. So not panels that are shaped like tiles. So they are still normal panels but with colors on them. So these are probably usefully for facades, like the side of a tall building.
