The Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics (Fraunhofer CSP) in Germany is developing printing and color technology for conventional silicon PV module cover glass, thin glass sheets and foils. It is intended to be a retrofit solution for panels used on solar façades, roofs, and balconies.
In a two-year project with the code name Colipri that started in February 2025, the researchers are refining a solution that brings color to PV modules for use in historic buildings, for example, or other building applications, making them less visible and more acceptable to consumers, while keeping efficiency losses and additional costs low.
“Together with our project partners, we can offer all the steps required for the module retrofitting process to customers. Currently, we are working on making the processes for individual solutions more cost-effective,” Charlotte Pfau, project manager at Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems, told pv magazine.
A process to retrofit finished commercial modules has been developed. “The process is characterized by the fact that it can be applied to all types of commercial modules with front glass and for all cell technologies, regardless of the size and efficiency behavior of the modules,” said Pfau.
Organic inks are used to print on films, while ceramic inks are used to print on glass. The glass-ceramic color matrices are intended to provide high reliability and long-term stability. Tests are being conducted on a variety of printing inks, such as spectrally selective pigments, including ceramic interference colors, to minimize efficiency losses, according to the group.
Further improvement of printing inks and patterns, as well as processes to increase efficiency, are ongoing as part of the project. It includes developing printing parameters and optimized print files needed to produce individualized designs on module cover glass, as well as glass sheets and films.
The maximum acceptable efficiency loss depends “heavily on the design and colors,” and limited to about 20% with optimization. “The goal is to reduce these losses further through improved printing inks and patterns without significantly compromising the design,” explained Pfau.
German project partners Flachglas Nord-Ost GmbH and Hohenstein Isolierglas GmbH support the effort with a focus on glass printing and polymer foil printing, respectively.
Fraunhofer CSP is responsible for the design and evaluation of the retrofit solutions, as well as developing efficiency-optimized printing rasters and optical layers, high-resolution datasets, and establishing measurement methods and test specimens. In addition, a new model for yield and performance loss estimates is in development.
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