Background on Panel causes Less Power?

BilljustBill
BilljustBill Solar Expert Posts: 219 ✭✭✭
in General Solar Power Topics #1
As I was looking at different solar websites, this one caught my interest because one PV model has a black background behind the cells instead of the usual Teldar white.

Maybe a PV gimmick for cosmetic reasons, but it would seem that more black means more heat; more heat means less power.

How do you see this design?

http://www.ul-solar.com/solar_panel_p/spb080m.htm

Bill
Bill
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Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #2
    Re: Background on Panel causes Less Power?

    I am not sure it makes a significant difference in panel temperature--the area of the black backing is not very large compared to the area of large "black" solar cells.

    I think it is more of an aesthetics choice.

    There may be other issues--Dark colors/materials tend to degrade faster in sunlight than light colors. For example, older aircraft that are covered with fabric and "dope"--The Dark and tending towards Reds where where the fabric/paint would fail first (Reds and dark colors tended to absorb blue and UV rays which caused the underlying materials to age faster than other colors).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • RCinFLA
    RCinFLA Solar Expert Posts: 1,485 ✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Background on Panel causes Less Power?

    The black area between the cells will probably cause more heating and therefore drop in output then the blackbody radiation heat loss from backside of panel.
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