Postproduction Coloring of Photovoltaic Modules With Imprinted Textiles

We present a customizable and potentially cost-efficient technique of coloring photovoltaic modules by laminating colored textiles onto photovoltaic cover glass (CoTex). A white nonwoven fabric is imprinted with any color, design, or graphic and is then laminated onto an arbitrary, frameless photovoltaic module. The short-circuit current losses of these modules range from 12% to 32% and depend on the type and coverage of the color, i.e., how much of the solar cell structure remains visible. Uncolored fabrics generate a grayish photovoltaic module with a short-circuit current density loss of 11% relative to a standard module. We fabricate CoTex building-integrated photovoltaic test modules and experimentally analyze their durability, UV stability, energy yield, hiding of the solar cells and appearance.