The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus to control the temperature of an panel of a vehicle, including sensing a vehicle condition, communicating the vehicle condition to a controller, associating the vehicle condition with a temperature control requirement, based on the temperature control requirement, generating a temperature control signal, communicating the temperature control signal to a beam generator; and in association with the control signal generating a beam within a near infrared band of 800 nm to 2000 nm, selected to transmit substantially through a base layer but not an outer layer.