how can solar panels be transparent if they rely on absorbing light

Question

i saw an article about a new Garmin device utilizing transparent solar panels but how can they let light through if they need to absorb light to create energy
what happened in the solar panel-community?

In: 0

Answer 1

They can never be perfectly transparent. But they can be made translucent at the cost of efficiency. Also, solar panels absorb light along a broad spectrum of wavelengths, so maybe theoretically one could be made that only absorbed above about 700 nm, the near infrared that we can’t see anyway.

Answer 2

They can never be perfectly transparent. But they can be made translucent at the cost of efficiency. Also, solar panels absorb light along a broad spectrum of wavelengths, so maybe theoretically one could be made that only absorbed above about 700 nm, the near infrared that we can’t see anyway.