A luminescent solar concentrator with 7.1% power conversion efficiency

Abstract

The Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC) consists of a transparent polymer plate, containing luminescent particles. Solar cells are connected to one or more edges of the polymer plate. Incident light is absorbed by the luminescent particles and re-emitted. Part of the light emitted by the luminescent particles is guided towards the solar cells by total internal reflection. Since the edge area is smaller than the receiving one, this allows for concentration of sunlight without the need for solar tracking. External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements were performed on LSC devices with multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) or GaAs cells attached to the sides. The best result was obtained for an LSC with four GaAs cell power conversion efficiency of this device, as measured at European Solar Test Installation laboratories, was 7.1% (geometrical concentration of a factor 2.5). With one GaAs cell attached to one edge only, the power efficiency was still as high as 4.6% (geometrical concentration of a factor 10). To our knowledge these efficiencies are among. the highest reported for the LSC

Spectral-based analysis of thin film luminescent solar concentrators

“…As a model system we employ thin film LSCs, where the photoactive component is dispersed in a PMMA layer on top of a transparent glass support (Reisfeld and Jorgensen, 1982;Reisfeld et al, 1994;Reisfeld, 2002). The perylene dye Lumogen F Red 305 (hereafter referred to as Red 305) is well suited for application in LSCs, as the absorption covers a large part of the visible range Kinderman et al, 2007;Slooff et al, 2008;Meyer and Markvart, 2009). Furthermore, Red 305 features a near-unity luminescence quantum yield (η yield = 1) (Ahn et al, 2007;Wilson and Richards, 2009) and good intrinsic stability (Seybold and Wagenblast, 1989;van Sark et al, 2008).…”

Spectral light management for solar energy conversion systems

“…Additionally, they are able to collect diffuse radiation as the process of down-converting light is a quantum mechanical one and is not constrained by geometrical optics limits. To date, no LSC device has been successfully commercialized for solar energy applications due to significant loss mechanisms (described below) and the highest reported power conversion efficiency has remained at 7.1% for several years [37]. However, there is still significant potential for this idea to be applied for spectral splitting receivers.…”

Welcome to rrl solar – more photovoltaics and energy research in pss (RRL)

“…photon management, solar concentrators and PV systems, plasmonics, theory and the like (e.g. [3,4]). …”