A number of companies have been working to disguise solar panels as roofs, roads, and even window blinds. But one Danish school is taking a different approach, using custom-built solar panels as a featured architectural element. Almost the entire facade of the Copenhagen International School – Nordhavn is made of blue-toned photovoltaics (some 12,000 overall!) generating more than half of the school’s electricity.
Designed by Scandinavian architecture firm C.F. Møller, the school is one of the largest building-integrated solar power plants in Denmark, with solar panels covering over 65,000 square feet. The specially colored panels were created by the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to incorporate extremely fine particles of colored glass in the surface of the panel, while letting through the same amount of light as an entirely clear pane of glass.