You may (or indeed may not) be an expert in the new technologies necessary to reduce the carbon impact of our homes. While feelings and emotions swirl around controversial solar farms and wind turbines (see blogs passim), relatively little has been said about the requirement that all new homes, from last year, must be built with renewable energy systems designed in, most notably heat pumps and solar panels. This has also been the case in the EU since 2020.

The aesthetics of home building – particularly here in the UK – is a much larger issue than we can tackle here but suffice it to say that the innate conservatism of the bulk of the house building industry tends to produce homes that seemingly belong in a different era. When solar panels are retrofitted to an existing dwelling that typically stand proud of the roof, black oblongs that may eat up free power but which are not exactly easy on the eye. When built into a roof from scratch panels tend to be flush – essentially part of the roof rather than an add-on – but still leave a visible marker. A virtuous marker, perhaps, but not exactly harmonious.

The core technical challenge of solar panels is how much sunlight they can convert into usable power – generally referred to as ‘efficiency’. By far the most efficient colour for solar panels is black because black absorbs more light than any other colour. But as panels become cheaper and as they in general become more efficient, aesthetics are increasingly becoming a design feature of emerging new solar technologies.

Art & Energy, who are partnering with us on our latest publication On a day like today… have done a fair bit of work in recent years, working with industry and academic research partners, on coloured solar panels and innovative shapes. There are now numerous companies working on non-black solutions for solar panels; in the UK a company called PolySolar UK is manufacturing clear solar panels that can function as windows. Physee, a Dutch company, is now installing ‘smart windows’ in various locations across Europe that not only generate power but have technology built in the regulate the energy demands of the building. Often the cost of installing clear solar panels is less than a complex roof install.

We’d love to hear from you about these kinds of developments. How can we broadly train artists and architects about the creative possibilities of these materials, for example? How do we persuade the innovators to work more closely with artists and architects as they develop new product – or maybe they already do?

We have an open call for this publication which is due out towards the end of the year, with a deadline of May 9, Please share your opinions and knowledge.

The image is from M J Richardson via Creative Commons Share Alike. Investing in new homes for Edinburgh – creating communities – geograph.org.uk