Stained glass | EPFL Graph Search

Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objets d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture, and usually then further decorating it in various ways. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow

Efficiency of silicon thin-film photovoltaic modules with a front coloured glass

Christophe Ballif, Valentin Chapuis, Virginie Hody-Le Caër, Martin Joly, Stefan Mertin, Laure-Emmanuelle Perret Aebi, Andreas Schueler

Photovoltaic electricity has already proven its ability to compete with other well established technologies for energy production. The abundant and non-toxic raw materials, the yearly increasing efficiency as well as the production cost of silicon thin-film solar cells getting lower and lower make this technology always more interesting for a wide spread use. Beside the functional features, the size, colour and glass texture of a PV module determine its appearance and aesthetics. In order to be more compliant with the built environment, photovoltaic installations have to be improved in terms of visual rendering, matching of colour of the existing roof-tops and parasitic reflections. The crystalline technology already offers various types of systems with a large choice of shapes, textures and colours as well as “semi-transparent” modules more easily integrated in the roof-tops or facade. By changing the anti-reflective coating (ARC) of a crystalline solar cell, it is possible to modify their colour [1]. However, for thin-film silicon technology the challenge is completely different, and up to now, the only way to modify the module colour is to reduce the thickness of the active layer and consequently its efficiency. Therefore new ways to enhance the visual rendering of the thin-film modules have to be explored. A study led in the frame of the ArchinSolar project [2] has shown that architects are ready to integrate PV modules with enhanced aesthetic aspect, even though there was a 10 % loss in efficiency. The present study shows how new coloured filters can be used to enhance PV modules’ appearance while minimizing power loss, to achieve a better integration in the traditional urban or rural environment.

EPFL2011

Glazing

Andreas Schueler

Field of the invention The present invention relates to glazings which, in particular, may be used in solar collectors. In the present text, the term "glazing" means any material, e.g. glass or polycarbonate, transparent to visible electromagnetic radiation. Summary of the invention An object of the present invention is to provide a colored reflection from a glazing, e.g. from the cover glass of a solar collector. This approach has the advantage to separate the functions of optical selectivity and colored reflection, providing thereby more freedom to layer optimization. In addition, if the invention is used in a solar collector, the black, sometimes ugly absorber sheet is hidden by the colored reflection of the glazing. The principle of the invention relates to a thermal solar collector wtih a colored coating applied to the glazing. The coating reflects a color, thus hiding the corrugated absorber sheet,. However the complementary spectrum is transmitted. No absorption occurs in the coating. The coating can be deposited onto the inner of the glazing, as shown in the drawing, but also on the outer side, or on both. Also, a colored coating on the inner side can be combined with a mat outer surface (or with a diffusing substrate).The glazing can consist e.g. of white glass (low iron content), or of organic material such as polycarbonate. No energy should be lost by absorption in the coating. All non-reflected energy should be transmitted. Those objectives are achieved with the glazing according to the present invention which, preferably but not exclusively, comprises multilayer interference stacks of transparent materials. For the present invention the material choice must be realistic, and the considered refractive indices have consequently to be within a certain range. In addition to that, the maximum number of layers is limited. In contrast to applications such as laser interference filters, solar applications employ typically large surfaces to be coated at low price, which implies that production costs limit the number of individual layers building up the multilayer stack.

2003

Glazing

Josef Andreas Schuler

GLAZING Field of the invention The present invention relates to glazings which, in particular, may be used in solar collectors. In the present text, the term "glazing" means any material, e.g. glass or polycarbonate, transparent to visible electromagnetic radiation. Summary of the invention An object of the present invention is to provide a colored reflection from a glazing, e.g. from the cover glass of a solar collector. This approach has the advantage to separate the functions of optical selectivity and colored reflection, providing thereby more freedom to layer optimization. In addition, if the invention is used in a solar collector, the black, sometimes ugly absorber sheet is hidden by the colored reflection of the glazing. The principle of the invention relates to a thermal solar collector wtih a colored coating applied to the glazing. The coating reflects a color, thus hiding the corrugated absorber sheet,. However the complementary spectrum is transmitted. No absorption occurs in the coating. The coating can be deposited onto the inner of the glazing, as shown in the drawing, but also on the outer side, or on both. Also, a colored coating on the inner side can be combined with a mat outer surface (or with a diffusing substrate).The glazing can consist e.g. of white glass (low iron content), or of organic material such as polycarbonate. No energy should be lost by absorption in the coating. All non-reflected energy should be transmitted. Those objectives are achieved with the glazing according to the present invention which, preferably but not exclusively, comprises multilayer interference stacks of transparent materials. For the present invention the material choice must be realistic, and the considered refractive indices have consequently to be within a certain range. In addition to that, the maximum number of layers is limited. In contrast to applications such as laser interference filters, solar applications employ typically large surfaces to be coated at low price, which implies that production costs limit the number of individual layers building up the multilayer stack.

2003

Glazing

Andreas Schueler

2003

Glazing

Josef Andreas Schuler

2003