The Face Companies (Norfolk, Virginia) announced the development of a coating technology that will enable light-sensitive devices such as solar panels and photosensors to be disguised or seamlessly concealed.

Spectral is a patented coating from The Face Companies’ Evergreen Technologies. It appears opaque when applied to any surface but actually allows 80 – or more – percent of incoming light to pass through it. The Spectral coating can be applied like paint in virtually any color, pattern or texture, making light-harvesting devices such as thin film photovoltaic panels essentially invisible. A solar-powered roof shingle now can look just like a conventional shingle, or a solar panel on the roof of an electric car can be visually indistinguishable from the rest of the vehicle’s surface. The coating can also be applied to the back of a smartphone case to conceal a solar charging panel.

Light-sensing security devices are another major Spectral application. With the innovative coating, motion detectors or photodetectors can be made to blend in with their surroundings, looking like rocks, fence posts or other common objects.

“Spectral may be one of the most significant advances to date in making solar power and light harvesting both visually attractive and economically feasible in thousands of new applications,” The Face Companies CEO Brad Face said. “With this coating, both natural and artificial light harvesting can be used in virtually every building to power a wide range of electronic devices and security sensors, including those enabled by the Internet of Things.”