If glass can be tinted to absorb and reflect certian colors of light, then why can't solar cells be tinted

Question

I know glass can be infused with metals to make stained (colored) glass. Why can't a similar process be done to solar cells?

Answer 1

Short answer of course is that it could be.

However if you had a glass "front" to the silicon that is coloured, you are simply stopping some of the light from reaching the cell.

For example, if you decided to filter out all the red light, then you would lose perhaps most of the IR all of the red and some of the orange/ yellow from the spectrum. This would make the solar cell produce appreciably less electricity.

Any glass covering the cell no only wants to be clear - but also clear to IR too - as this is used by the cell more than most colours.

What was your thinking behind this please, I am curious.

Mark

Answer 2

What would be the purpose. If you tint solar cells, you don't make it absorb more light, you make it absorb less light. All the wavelengths that it cannot absorb would now be reflected.

Answer 3

Actually, BP is doing something similar, using layers which absorb different wavelengths, to increase efficiency.
So yes, it can be, and in fact is being done now.

Answer 4

It certainly can, but why would you want to do that? If you color the glass, you end up blocking light that would otherwise be useful for powering your PV panel. As expensive and inefficient as most PV's are, it would just be an economically foolish thing to do.