Solar panels are usually dark black because their job is to absorb light, and most designs that add other colors to solar cell devices reduce their ability to absorb light and generate electricity.

    But as a building material, BIPV should be beautiful and durable; as an energy product, BIPV should maintain high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and the lowest possible cost to make it widely accepted. This brings great challenges to the development of color photovoltaic technology. Although some dye-sensitized solar cells and organic solar cells are naturally colored, the color is mainly derived from their insufficient light absorption, which greatly limits their conversion efficiency.

    Other approaches have also been attempted before, such as using structured color sources, using microscopic shapes that reflect only a very narrow, selective part of the light, such as the scales on a butterfly's wings, to change the color of solar PV.

    However, this technology combined with structural color makes the color of the panel more complex, and the cost of large-scale application of the technology is high, so it is not a perfect solution. At present, some people hope to use photonic glass to change the color of solar panels, no matter how multi-colored photovoltaic solar panels have been able to appear and be applied in large numbers.