Technology and Market Perspective for Indoor Photovoltaic Cells

Abstract

Indoor photovoltaic cells have the potential to power the Internet of Things ecosystem, including distributed and remote sensors, actuators, and communications devices. As the power required to operate these devices continues to decrease, the type and number of nodes that can now be persistently powered by indoor photovoltaic cells is rapidly growing. This will drive significant growth in the demand for indoor photovoltaics, creating a large alternative market for existing and novel photovoltaic technologies. With the re-emergence of interest in indoor photovoltaic cells, we provide an overview of this burgeoning field focusing on the technical challenges that remain to create energy autonomous sensors at viable price points, and the commercial challenges to be overcome for individual photovoltaic technologies to dominate this market. I. INTRODUCTION TO INDOOR PHOTOVOLTAICS The early years of solar-power electronic devices saw photovoltaic (PV) cells used in extremely low power but relatively expensive consumer devices, where their cost could easily be absorbed. For example, the designers of a smartwatch that sold for ~$100 could afford to incorporate a cell costing a few dollars. Figure 1 outlines how, as the number and types of low-power electronic devices have expanded over the years, their costs have reduced. At the same time, the cost of PV cells has also been reducing, and the performance increasing, so that now we can sensibly power a range of electronic devices including wireless sensors, RFID tags or Bluetooth Beacons. A significant portion of these new devices are part of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem that promises large networks of connected devices collecting the Big Data upon which our medical, manufacturing, infrastructure, and energy industries will be monitored and optimized. Billions of wireless sensors are expected to be installed over the coming decade, with almost half to be located inside buildings [1]. Currently, the use of batteries to power these devices places significant constraints on their power consumption, where the range and frequency Technology and market perspective for indoor photovoltaic cells

Wide-Bandgap Halide Perovskites for Indoor Photovoltaics

“…IoT industry is projected to make an economic impact of $11 trillion by 2025 and as many as 75 billion connected IoT devices. Furthermore, it is noticeable that half of those components to be installed will be located inside buildings ( Mathews et al, 2019 ). Wireless sensors are the most fundamental components in these smart devices ( Figure 1B ) ( Davies, 2015 ).…”

Solar Cells for Indoor Applications: Progress and Development

“…Panasonic, Powerfilm, and Solemshave have commercialized indoor solar cell modules based on a-Si. GCell has already launched indoor modules in the market and Alta Devices and Lightricity are selling indoor solar cells based on III–IV semiconducting materials [ 1 ]. Although PVSCs and OSCs have already demonstrated considerable potential for indoor applications, they have not been commercialized thus far.…”

“…Currently, the demand for self-powered microelectronic indoor devices, such as sensors, smart meters, wearable devices, and actuators, is steadily increasing, as they make daily activities faster by automating them through the Internet of things (IoT) technology [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. It is expected that billions of interconnected wireless sensors, personal data storage devices, actuators, and household products will be installed by 2020 through IoT technology [ 6 ].…”

Indoor photovoltaics, The Next Big Trend in solution‐processed solar cells

“…As presented in Figure 1(A), the cost of low‐power electronics has also reduced due to increasing integration and use of low‐cost substrates together with low‐cost manufacturing routes such as printing. To further enhance the versatility of location and applicability, deploying PV technologies into the indoor environment to realize wireless and battery‐free self‐powered electronic systems such as wireless sensors, radio‐frequency identification (RFID) tags, and Bluetooth beacons becomes an attractive option 5 . A significant portion of these electronic systems will form a crucial part of the IoT ecosystem, where large networks of connected devices collect and communicate data from the environment.…”

“…Having long‐term local energy sources for providing power to devices in such networks can be partly realized through photovoltaic conversion and capacitive storage. However, the prevalent silicon (Si) PVs generally have poor performance under ambient light conditions, are also costly when operated at much lower levels of energy conversion than the capability of Si (which is not even approached under terrestrial solar insolation) and difficult to integrate into small, lightweight, and portable systems for the IoT 5‐7 …”