The solar photovoltaic (PV) technology undergoes a linear decrease in photoelectric conversion efficiency when the PV operating temperature increases. But proper cooling can improve PV efficiency and prolong its service life. Thus, with the annual increase of PV installation, people pay more attention to the cooling of operating PV. Compared with active cooling of PV, recently, passive cooling is widely studied due to its self-sustained nature and energy-saving. Passive cooling based on spectral-selective includes two aspects. One is to selectively shields the sub-bandgap absorption in the solar radiation region (0.3~2.5 μm), reduce the generation of absorption heat, and maintain the high transmittance of photoelectric response light. The other is to improve the emissivity of the mid-infrared region (MIR) (4~25 μm) of the PV surface, and enhance the radiative cooling ability of the parasitic heat. In the view of spectral-selective, the materials and structures of solar spectral-selective, radiative cooling and all-optical spectral-selective to promote the cooling of solar photovoltaics were summarized. The spectral-selective materials on glass were fabricated by etching, sputtering and painting to eliminate sub-bandgap absorption heat and enhance radiative cooling capacity. They can effectively reduce the PV temperature and improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. In addition, the industrialization potential of passive cooling materials was prospected, which provided reference for related exploration.