Performance and stability of semitransparent OPVs for building integration: A benchmarking analysis

Abstract

9 Semitransparent (ST) organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are demonstrating great potential 10 for building integration applications, especially in windows. For that purpose, ST-OPVs 11 should achieve adequate transparency and performance stability. In this regard, the 12 present research deals with the experimental performance of three different building-13 integrated ST-OPV technologies (technology A: developed in the frame of the present 14 study; technologies B and C: commercial modules). More specifically, spectral 15 transmittance and electrical measurements have been conducted in order to determine 16 the characteristics of the modules for building integration and electricity generation 17 purposes. Results regarding the transmittance reveal that technology A outperforms 18 technologies B and C. The stability analysis of the modules verifies that module C is the 19 most stable one with almost no decrease (3.6%) in the power conversion efficiency 20 (PCE). Furthermore, the PCE of technology B is slightly higher than in the case of 21 technology C, which experiences a PCE degradation of about 10-15% over the whole 22 time period. Finally, technology A presents a 20% reduction in PCE at around 500 23 hours. 24 Ag Silver 28 AgNW Silver nanowire 29 AVT Average visual transmittance [%] 30 BIPV Building-integrated photovoltaic 31 DAQs Data acquisition systems 32 D λ Spectral distribution [-] 33 48 PCBM [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester 49 PCE Power conversion efficiency [%] 50 PEDOT Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) 51 PET Polyethylene terephthalate 52 PSS Poly(styrenesulfonate) 53 PTBT Poly(4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-54 alt-3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl] thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-4,6-diyl) 55 PWM Pulse Width Modulation 56 3 R.H. Relative humidity 57 ST Semitransparent 58 T Module temperature [ o C] or thermal cycling 59 TiO 2 Titanium dioxide 60 UV Ultraviolet 61 V(λ) Photopic vision efficiency [-] 62 V cell Potential of the OPV modules [V] 63 V oc Open-circuit potential [V] 64 WO x Tungsten oxide 65 ZnMgO Zinc magnesium oxide 66 Greek symbols 67 λ Wavelength [nm] 68 Transmittance [-] 69 Visible transmittance in agreement with EN 410:2011 [-] 70 71 films, lightweight, semitransparent, free form and flexible, widening the possible 83 applications in comparison to conventional silicon-based photovoltaic panels. 84 With respect to the electrical performance, in the literature remarkable advances by 85 utilizing bulk heterojunction organic devices that combine donor and acceptor 86 substances in the blend have been reported [3]. Also, molecular optimization to tune the 87 optoelectronic properties of photovoltaic materials by chemical modulation is an 88 effective strategy to enhance efficiency. More specifically, the present efficiency record 89 of 13.1% has been obtained for a cell where the small molecule acceptor was 90 synthesized via fluorination [4]. This impressive value of 13.1%, even to be very high in 91 terms of OPV cells, is quite far from the percentages obtai...

Semi-Transparent Building Integrated Photovoltaic Solar Glazing: Investigations of Electrical and Optical Performances for Window Applications in Tropical Region

“…e power generated apparently depends on the solar irradiation, the higher the the solar irradiance the higher the power, while as module temperature increases the module current and the voltage drops, for example; at = 1100 W/m −2 and m = 32°C the power, current SC , and voltage OC appeared lower than those at = 1000 W/m −2 and m = 47°C (Table 3). e results agree with other studies [44,45] performed in the tropics of Spain 7: e semi-transparent solar panel performance at di erent irradiances: I-V and P-V curves.…”

Quantifying and Understanding Voltage Losses Due to Nonradiative Recombination in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells with Low Energetic Offsets

“…PT=pyridyl [2,1,3]thiadiazole and CPDT=cyclopentadithiophene, PM2, which has the structure "BDT-PT-CPDT-PT", where BDT=benzodithiophene and the remaining units are shared with PIPCP, and PTB7-Th, [33] which shares the BDT donating unit with PM2.…”

“…Organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) allow for lightweight, flexible, and semitransparent energy generation, permitting them to be used for such unique purposes as building-integrated applications. [1][2][3] Significant improvements in materials design and processing and the development of nonfullerene acceptors have allowed for near constant reports of recordbreaking efficiency in these devices over the past 30 years; [4][5][6] some systems now achieve fill factors (FF) near 80% [7] and others show external quantum efficiencies (EQE) of over 80%. [8] However, all of these devices remain plagued by large open-circuit voltage (VOC) losses.…”

Thermal performance of semitransparent CdTe BIPV window at temperate climate

“…Constant or static semi-transparent PV (BIPV) for buildings glazing integration is promising because they provide control over solar heat gain and daylight and generate benign electricity concomitantly (Saifullah et al, 2016). PV system in a BIPV glazing includes crystalline silicon (Ghosh et al, 2018b), thin film amorphous (Lu et al, 2017), cadmium telluride (CdTe) (Alrashidi et al, 2019) (Sun et al, 2018), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), DSSC (Selvaraj et al, 2019), perovskite (Ghosh et al, 2020), and organic (Chemisana et al, 2019) type. Crystalline silicone-based BIPV dominates the market because they have higher durability and efficiency (Green et al, 2019) .…”