Do solar panels have to be in direct sunlight?

Question

can solar panels have glass between the panels and the sun?

Answer 1

PV panels do not have to be in direct sunlight. If they are behind glass they need to be well ventilated to remove excess heat.

If PV cells connected in series are not uniformly illuminated the series will produce an amount of power that is based on the light on the least illuminated cell. Thus moving a panel back from a window will mean that for large parts of the day it will produce almost no power as parts of the panel are shaded. This applies only when the cells are connected in series. In parallel they suffer no special degradation of production, but just the sum of illuminated cells.

This makes a difference when you decide to use a higher voltage panel... high voltage panels are more susceptible to partial shading.

But connecting low voltage panels in series gives that same degradation.

Stay away from placing a panel back away from the window, or close to the edges of the window, under roof overhangs, trees and surrounding building shade, where possible.

Answer 2

You're going to suffer a loss of output if you do.  How much depends on your exact conditions.

Standard window glass (which I assume you want to use) loses light through both absorption and reflection.  It also retains heat.  Silicon PV panels use special low-iron glass (without the green tinge) to minimize absorption, and some have anti-reflective coatings.  They also lose output as the temperature goes up, and a window in front will retain heat.

If your panel is behind a window with panes, it may suffer a serious loss of output due to selective shading of some cells in a string (the panel needs all cells in light to produce electricity).

So yes and no.  You can put a solar panel behind a window and it will work, but not as well (perhaps very poorly); how much you lose depends on the particulars.

Answer 3

Should be okay but you might lose a little power if the windows blocks infrared or ultraviolet light [which I believe they do]