Semi-transparent solar cells

Sun, Jingsong; Jasieniak, Jacek J.

doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa53d7

Cited by 85 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 265 publications

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“…(2) Semitransparent designs are more prevalent in the literature. 13,14 Designs span patterned opaque PV elements that allow light through between the elements to luminescent solar concentrator schemes in which chromophores, such as quantum dots 15 , absorb light in index-matched thin films on glass that waveguide and reemit photons to the window edge where they are converted by conventional PV cells. The most common configuration is the application of thinned absorbers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Detailed Balance Analysis of Photovoltaic Windows

Wheeler

2019

ACS Energy Lett.

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There are a number of technical and socioeconomic factors converging to position photovoltaic (PV) windows as a transformative technology for the energy landscape of the future: 1) Urban areas currently account for 67-76% of global final energy consumption. 2) 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. 3) The overwhelming architectural trend is away from opaque building components and toward all-glass facades. 4) Photovoltaics are becoming extremely affordable, and the most expensive components in a conventional module are the glass and transparent metals-components that are already in highly-insulating glazing. 5) Buildings are increasingly built to easily integrate with photovoltaic energy generation using DC microgrids and on-site energy generation to balance high demand on the grid. Rational design of PV windows is of paramount importance to realize their impact. In this work, we provide an analysis on the theoretical performance of PV windows using a detailed balance model to understand the complex design space of power conversion efficiency, visible light transmittance, solar heat gain coefficient, and color. We find there are two distinct regimes for PV window absorber design. The first lowvisible light transmittance regime validates the most prevalent approach to semitransparent PV windows in which conventional absorber materials (Si, CIGS, CdTe, CZTS, perovskite, etc.) are thinned to allow visible light to pass through. In this thinned-absorber regime, an ideal bandgap of ~1.35 eV maximizes performance, which is consistent with the famous Shockley-Queisser limit. However, we identify a second, high visible light transmittance regime in which the ideal bandgap for maximum power conversion efficiency increases monotonically from 2 to 3 eV with increasing visible light transmittance. In this tuned-bandgap regime, the solar cell exhibits lower losses and tunable solar heat gain and color.

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confidence: 99%

Detailed Balance Analysis of Photovoltaic Windows

Wheeler

2019

ACS Energy Lett.

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“…The semitransparent OSCs (ST‐OSCs) have promising applications in power‐generating windows for building integrated photovoltaics and photovoltaic vehicles . ST‐OSCs have several key parameters, such as efficiency, transparency, color, and color rendering property.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonfullerene Acceptors for Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells

Dai

Zhan

2018

Advanced Energy Materials

168

110

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The FF is defined as the ratio of the maximum power (P max ) divided by the product of V OC and J SCThe second important parameter of ST-OSCs is transparency. The transparency or transmittance of ST-OSCs is usually characterized by measuring the average visible transmittance (AVT) of the device in the visible region (370-740 nm) with UV-vis spectrophotometer. The requirement of AVT is up to real applications, for example, an AVT of 25% is a basic requirement for the window application. [47] Color is the third parameter of ST-OSCs, which is determined by the photoactive layers and electrodes. CIE 1931 xy chromaticity diagram [53] can be used to characterize the color properties of ST-OSCs. The color coordinate (x,y) of ST-OSCs is calculated from the corresponding transmitted light. The color rendering property is the fourth parameter of ST-OSCs. Generally, the color rendering property is determined by color rendering index (CRI). CRI is an indicator of neutral color degree, which can be calculated from the transmitted light. [54] To realize semitransparency of OSCs, both electrodes must be transparent, allowing not only the light to get in, but also the visible light to partially pass through. A number of transparent electrodes were reported, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), thin metals (Ag or Au), [55][56][57][58][59] poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(st yrene-sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), [60][61][62] Ag nanowires, [63][64][65][66][67] and graphene. [68,69] Because there are a couple of reviews focused on the transparent electrodes, [47,52] we will not discuss transparent electrodes in this Research News.Since there is a compromise between the PCE and the AVT of ST-OSCs, in order to achieve high PCE and high AVT simultaneously, an ideal active layer should have strong nearinfrared (NIR) absorption but weak visible absorption. This kind of active layer can sufficiently utilize NIR solar irradiation to achieve high PCE, while maintain high transparency of visible light. Very recently, ST-OSCs based on narrow-band-gap polymer donors and narrow-band-gap nonfullerene acceptors exhibited PCEs up to >10%. [70] However, ST-OSCs were mainly based on blends of fullerene acceptors and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and exhibited low PCEs (<3%) with lower J SC at the early stage. [71,72] In order to extend absorption of the active layer and enhance the J SC of OSCs, a number of donors with medium and low band gaps have been synthesized (Figure 1), and their absorption edges extend from 600 nm (P3HT) to NIR region, [73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] for instance, PBDTTT-C-T, [84] PTB7, [85][86][87] Semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) have appealing features, such as flexibility, transparency, and color in addition to generating clean energy, and therefore show potential applications in building integrated photovoltaics and photovoltaic vehicles. Concerted efforts in materials synthesis (particularly low-band-gap polymer donors and nonfullerene acceptors) and device optimization (particularly incorporating transpa...

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“…Unlike opaque cells, the performance characteristics of STOSCs and STPSCs strongly depend on the optical parameters affecting not only the PCE but also the visual comfort. Despite several review papers on this topic, most of them dealt with single-junction cells and some of them were biased to STOSCs or STPSCs [23][24][25][26], but this review covers a wide range of multi-junction cells as well as single-junction ones. Tables 2 and 3 provide overview for the progress of semitransparent photovoltaic cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Studies of Semitransparent Solar Cells

Shin

Choi

2018

Coatings

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It is necessary to develop semitransparent photovoltaic cell for increasing the energy density from sunlight, useful for harvesting solar energy through the windows and roofs of buildings and vehicles. Current semitransparent photovoltaics are mostly based on Si, but it is difficult to adjust the color transmitted through Si cells intrinsically for enhancing the visual comfort for human. Recent intensive studies on translucent polymer-and perovskite-based photovoltaic cells offer considerable opportunities to escape from Si-oriented photovoltaics because their electrical and optical properties can be easily controlled by adjusting the material composition. Here, we review recent progress in materials fabrication, design of cell structure, and device engineering/characterization for high-performance/semitransparent organic and perovskite solar cells, and discuss major problems to overcome for commercialization of these solar cells.

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Semi-transparent solar cells

Cited by 85 publications

References 265 publications

Detailed Balance Analysis of Photovoltaic Windows

Detailed Balance Analysis of Photovoltaic Windows

Nonfullerene Acceptors for Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells

Recent Studies of Semitransparent Solar Cells

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