The façade of a building is like a face, each one is unique.
We take care of our faces and of our looks much in the same way as we invest attention and money into the appearance of our buildings. We give them a specific design, we give them color, and we can be so proud of them that we even place our company logos onto them.
Recently, we have also expressed a desire for our buildings to become energy neutral. On the one side, this is driven by regulation, on the other, it is driven by a realization that we must reduce our CO2 emissions to keep our planet safe. We develop innovative and cutting-edge technologies to reduce energy consumption. In the meantime, renewable energy sources have become more effective and are now widely accessible.
Standard solar panels, in their well-known blue and black colors, however, are becoming a topic of some debate. These solar panels have been developed to generate the most energy on a given surface at the lowest cost and every year they become slightly more efficient and slightly less expensive. They are efficient, perhaps even to a fault.
As smart cities become more of a reality we see buildings getting taller, and in order to meet our goals for energy-neutral construction, it means we cannot rely on rooftops, alone, to provide our solar energy. Façades must be taken into account as well. But façades are visible and, for high-rise constructions, rooftops are not.
This leaves us with an important question:
How can the aesthetic demands of building owners, architects, and project developers be met with solar?
At Kameleon Solar, we have recently developed an answer to these vital aesthetic concerns. Solar panels in color, with designs, have become available in virtually any desired dimension. Façades of 2018 can generate clean energy without having to sacrifice the beauty of a building.
We stopped pursuing what everyone in the industry seems to regard as the Holy Grail of Solar: efficiency. We sacrificed a bit of efficiency in order to create the potential for beauty. We call it ColorBlast® and with it, we have married Beauty with the Beast. After all, a beautiful façade that generates clean energy is still better than a beautiful façade that generates nothing at all, wouldn’t you agree?
In a series of blogs, I want to take you on a journey through the ins and outs regarding our new product. I will guide you through the challenges, opportunities, and best practices when it comes to the application of colored solar panels on façades. Some of my topics will include:
• Color integrity
• The (im)possibilities of color
• Color fastness
• Efficiency
• The relationship between color and efficiency
• Maintenance costs
• Solar panel quality
These topics, and more, will be part of a series of blogs that will be published over the course of the next two weeks.
All this and more will be summarized in an episode of the TV program Doe Maar Duurzaam, which will be aired on the 14th of January 2018. Subtitles will be available in English at a later date and we will be sure to post a link to this.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!