Austrian solar manufacturer Sonnenkraft has debuted its new “Terracotta” solar panel that matches red-tiled roofs and is historic-building compliant.

Red solar panels

“With our new solar module ‘Terracotta,’ which is produced in Austria, we would like to make a contribution to ensuring that monument protection and sustainable energy production go hand in hand,” said Peter Prasser, managing director of St. Veit an der Glan-based Sonnenkraft. “The terracotta module is also the perfect solution for design-savvy customers with red tiled roofs and contributes to local added value.”

The 400W double-glass solar panels have red frames, and have general building approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt). They feature TopCon solar cells and have a power conversion efficiency of 20.02%. (Solar panel efficiency – how much sunlight a panel converts to electricity – typically ranges from 15-23%.)

Electrek’s Take

Solar panels are typically blue polycristalline or black monocrystalline, so panels made of “colored encapsulation material [that] achieves a homogeneous red effect,” as Sonnenkraft puts it, is something I’ve not seen before. (Let me know in the comments below if you have.) If they had lame power conversion efficiency, then it wouldn’t be a story – but they don’t.

These panels open up a new set of possibilities for listed buildings in Austria and beyond. There’s nothing wrong with wanting renewables that are aesthetically pleasing.

I have a brown metal roof. If there were solar panels that had the same efficiency and cost as the panels I have now that matched my roof, I would have gladly chosen them.

Read more: Nevada put big battery energy storage where a coal plant used to be

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