Solarskin Technology

Sistine Solar, a startup founded at MIT Sloan School of Management has developed SolarSkin technology. This technology involves a printable skin that mimics the color and the design of the roof  and which is overlaid to blend seamlessly with the structure of the house. The process entails placing a thin, printable layer within the solar panel itself thus enabling owners to match their panels to their roof, or obtain any other customized color scheme for installation on their residential property.

What are Solarskins?

Solar skin comes with a selective light filtration technology, which permits the skin to transmit light through it to the photovoltaic cells under it.

 Solarskin placed on a residential property

As per Sistine Solar, “SolarSkin graphics have only minimal losses in panel efficiency due to advancements in selective light filtration “. To conclude, it is a great choice when customers are aiming both at the aesthetics and great energy output from their solar installations.

SolarSkin- Important Points

1. SolarSkin can be imprinted with any image; hence it can easily be seamlessly embedded into solar panels without compromising the energy output and hence the efficiency of the system.
2. SolarSkin enables owners to freely and creatively match solar panels with their rooftops. In commercial establishments the technology enables to embed logos, advertisements or flags on the roof.
3. As per Sistine Solar,” Though the technology is costlier than traditional solar, it can still save homeowners over $30.000 in its lifespan“.
4. The SolarSkin comes with 5-year manufacturer warranty and a 25-year warranty on its power generation capability.

Does Solar Skin impact Efficiency?

There might be some loss of efficiency due to the skin, but as per Sistine Solar they offer services to help customers proactively monitor their panels performance and even receive cautionary alerts and forewarnings for any problems and outages. What about Cost? Currently there is around a 10 percent increase in installation costs with SolarSkins in place, but as per Sistine solar the installations still offer savings of many thousands of dollars over the life of the panels