Solar facades with a print
The power design wall generates 80% electricity compared with traditional solar panes.
Wouldn’t it be beautiful to generate electricity with solar facades designed with a print?
Through a combination of graphical techniques with solar cell technology, Dutch Solar Design succeeded in generating all facets of energy.
The yield of the aesthetic facade elements is about 80 percent of normal solar panels.
Power Facades
The Dutch Solar Design wall panels are designed with the so-called back-contact technology.
This means that the integrated wiring of the PV cells has been applied on the backside instead of the front like the classic solar cells.
According to John van Roosmalen, senior researcher Solar Energy at ECN (Energy Research Center Netherlands), this is the way to design “beautiful facades”. Some interested companies have shown their interest. They are looking forward to transform their facades with a beautiful designed “power wall”.
More and more companies and government agencies take measures to make their buildings energy neutral and adjusting to Paris goals to limit global warming. This is a green solution that looks beautiful. “Any pattern or drawing can be printed on the solar cells.
How does it work?
Dutch Solar Design developed a technique to integrate a full colour, durable print into a facade panel with integrated PV-cells (with MWT back contact technology). The desired image or design is processed by an algorithm, which negotiates an optimum between minimal surface coverage and the maximal optical effect.
Q: ‘Doesn’t covering a solar cell defeat the purpose of collecting sunlight?’
Not necessarily. Our customized prints are engineered out of little dots which ‘blend’ together to the human eye, creating a subtle optical illusion – while plenty of the surface is actually bare. And depending on the specific colour and desired opacity, the ink we use can permit a significant amount of sunlight to reach the PV-surface under the print, too.
Dutch Solar Design
Dutch Solar Design is a partnership of ECN, UNStudio, Design Innovation Group, Facade Aldowa, University of Amsterdam and TS Visuals.
Related
- PowerWindow Breakthrough
- Double-sided PV
- All-weather PV
- Building integrated photovoltaics
- Facade System allows building to ‘breathe’
- Clairplus Stone Purifies Air
Have you seen this?
Pros & Cons of (renewable) energy sources (dossier)
Trending renewable energy technologies and initiatives (dossier)
BetterWorldSolutions helps you finding qualified leads and sales partners, world wide
or
Send us your question: info@betterworldsolutions.eu