Given the melting of the reflective ice at the poles and the proliferation of solar panels is it possible to design a solar panel that reflects the heating portion of light but retains that portion needed for electricity generation? What would be the coating needed to do this? Is there a glass available that will do this?
Not a glass but the design of the two-layer absorber-emitter material is key to this improvement. Its outer layer, facing the sunlight, is an array of multiwalled carbon nanotubes, which very efficiently absorbs the light’s energy and turns it to heat. This layer is bonded tightly to a layer of a photonic crystal.
Omnia thank you for your answer. Its an interesting solution for PV-T.
What I wanted to know was is it possible to selectively reflect the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that will create heat so that the heat goes back into space but retain that portion of the spectrum used to generate electricity. This is to compensate for the loss of reflection caused by shrinking polar ice caps.
There is no such but as an idea we can designed film based on abundant and eco-friendly cellulose acetate and connect it to pv somehow.
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