Energy harvesting methods for providing autonomous electrical power to vehicles and electrically-powered devices in vehicles

A method for providing a selectively colorable system that produces electrical energy for supplementing a vehicle's electrical system, comprising:

• arranging an energy harvesting element on a surface of a vehicle body;
• and
• forming an energy transmissive layer over the energy harvesting element on the surface of the vehicle body, the energy transmissive layer being formed of a material composition comprising a plurality of substantially-transparent particles and a substantially-transparent matrix material that fixes the plurality of substantially-transparent particles in a layer arrangement;
• the energy transmissive layer having a body-facing side facing the surface of the vehicle body, and an energy-incident side opposite the body-facing side, and the energy transmissive layer passing 50% or more of light energy impinging on the energy transmissive layer through the energy transmissive layer to activate the energy harvesting element;
• wherein the plurality of substantially-transparent particles comprise:
• a spherical core formed of a first transparent dielectric material, the spherical core having a value of a physical diameter equal to a half wavelength of a first selected color of light component to be reflected by the particle modified by a refractive index of the first transparent dielectric material;
• and
• an outer coating comprised of another transparent dielectric material having a selected index of refraction of 2 or less, the outer coating having a thickness that substantially eliminates reflective interference between the colors reflected by adjacent particles when in contact with one another.