Optimization of large-size glass laminated luminescent solar concentrators

A review of concentrator silicon solar cells

“…The downconverter materials were always made into waveguides to guide the light to the cells and they were always called luminescent concentrator, the cells could be placed at the top, bottom or edge of the waveguides, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the systems were made by Yoon and Zhang et al [34,35], the light intensity reaching the cell was always larger than 1000 W/cm 2 (1 sun) [35,36]. Using the downconverter materials to realize concentration could decrease the demand of tracking, because the effect of non-uniform illumination on the luminescent concentrator was little compared to above optical elements [34,35].…”

“…3 and 4, the systems were made by Yoon and Zhang et al [34,35], the light intensity reaching the cell was always larger than 1000 W/cm 2 (1 sun) [35,36]. Using the downconverter materials to realize concentration could decrease the demand of tracking, because the effect of non-uniform illumination on the luminescent concentrator was little compared to above optical elements [34,35]. But the efficiency of the luminescent concentrator system was still low compared to traditional optical concentrator system, the highest efficiency was just 7.1% under 2.5 suns using GaAs cells [17,37].…”

“…Varieras et al made a concentration module of 3 suns using the commercial crystalline silicon solar cells and related module manufacturing process; they just used the patterned glasses to cover the cells which were made strips instead of common glasses [62]. Slooff et al placed a commercial multicrystalline silicon solar cell to the edge of downconverter materials, the short circuit current and maximum output power of the cell increased about 1.7 times [37], Zhang placed a commercial monocrystalline silicon solar cell to the bottom of downconverter materials, the maximum output power increased about 1.38 times [35].…”

Luminescent solar concentrators with a bottom-mounted photovoltaic cell: performance optimization and power gain analysis

“…Trapped in the plate of the LSC via total internal reflection, the re-emitted light is concentrated to small area photovoltaic (PV) cells mounted at the edges of the waveguide [4][5][6] . It can absorb both direct and diffuse lights without an expensive tracking system, and the cooling systems are also not required because the long-wave radiation can transmit the device [6,7] . More particularly, LSCs have a promising prospect in building integrated PVs (BIPVs) because of their low cost and ability to be made into a variety of shapes [8][9][10][11][12] .…”

“…1, are a more effective way for cost reduction and efficiency improvement. In this design, the PV cells can absorb waveguide light and direct transmitted light, contributing to solving the narrow-absorption problem and favoring the reduction of self-absorption due to the shorter transmission distance of fluorescence compared with traditional LSCs [7,16,17] . Recently, the BM-LSCs have been attracted increasing interest.…”