Triggering a large scale luminescent solar concentrators market: The smart window project

Luminescent Solar Collectors: Quo Vadis?

“…A general context marked by environmental concerns and energy savings has triggered the exploration of many niches of energy resources potentially available in urban environment. [6,7,[255][256][257][258][259][260][261][262][263] Debije and co-workers have fabricated large-scale LSCs to serve as noise barrier in urban environment and investigated the effect of light orientation and street art on the performances. [260,261] Luminescent tiles based on LSCs with bottom solar cells have been developed for roof application.…”

“…[262,263] Perhaps the most promising field of application of LSCs in urban environment lies in the considerable collecting surface for solar light offered by the windows of modern buildings. [6,7,[255][256][257][258][259] However, the use of LSCs for this application poses problems related to technical and economic aspects and social acceptability. Efficiency under diffuse light and limited angular dependence on incident light are specific advantages of LSCs for BIPV [5][6][7]257,265] in addition to their multiple possibilities of color and shape that also open large possibilities for artistic creation.…”

Laboratory protocols for measuring and reporting the performance of luminescent solar concentrators

“…Given the versatility in device structure, the absence of visible electrical interconnections and the working mechanism based purely on optical processes, LSCs are particularly suitable for urban integration, where one could advantageously deploy LSCs on any surface not optimal for standard PV usage, such as north-facing building facades and windows, park benches, kiosk walls, canopies, bus or bike shelters and advertising signage. [11][12][13][14] In particular, LSCs can play a pivotal role in the transition towards wider-scale urban deployment of BIPV, 13 a market already projected to exceed US$ 36 billion by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of B19%. 15 However, the rapid resurgence of the LSC field has revealed deficiencies in reporting and measurement protocols.…”

Soft luminescent solar concentrator film with organic dye and rubbery matrix

“…In the case of a plate coated with a matrix film with luminescent dyes, Equation (12) was modified to obtain Equations (12) and (13). The absorption coefficient of the matrix (a 1 ) was obtained by Equation (16) using the thickness of the matrix film (d 1 ) and glass (d 2 ), the absorption coefficient of the glass (a 2 ), the reflection coefficient (r) between the plate and air, and the transmission of the plate coated by the matrix polymer. Moreover, in Equation 17, a 1 enables us to calculate the absorption coefficient of the luminescent dye (a 3 ) by the transmission of the LSC.…”

“…[14,15] For these reasons, organic materials are mainly used than quantum dot materials. [16,17] Generally, inorganic quantum dots exhibit high performance than organic dyes, but the direct comparison is not easy because the standard for the characteristics of LSC performance has been established yet. [18] The waveguide matrix is also as important as luminescent materials because its optical properties crucially affect the propagation ability of lights in the LSC device; Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is the most common matrix material for LSCs because of its high transparency as glass.…”