Theory for optimal design of waveguiding light concentrators in photovoltaic microcell arrays

Abstract

Efficiency of ultrathin flexible solar photovoltaic silicon microcell arrays can be significantly improved using nonimaging solar concentrators. A fluorophore is introduced to match the solar spectrum and the low-reflectivity wavelength range of Si, reduce the escape losses, and allow the nontracking operation. In this paper we optimize our solar concentrators using a luminescent/nonluminescent photon transport model. Key modeling results are compared quantitatively to experiments and are in good agreement with the latter. Our solar concentrator performance is not limited by the dye self-absorption. Bending deformations of the flexible solar collectors do not result in their indirect gain degradation compared to flat solar concentrators with the same projected area.

Quantum dots for Luminescent Solar Concentrators

“…In addition looking forward to commercialisation of this technology, we believe that much greater attention should be paid to the synthesis of complex core-shell QD structures (including 1D quantum wires) and creation of second generation LSC devices. 214 This would allow us to take the full advantage of the huge flexibility that QDs offer as lumiphores for LSCs and combine this with some of the more advanced LSC designs including microconcentrator arrays, [215][216][217] stacked LSCs, 7,70,106,[218][219][220][221] photonic band stops, [104][105][106][107][108]214 dye aligned concentrators, [109][110][111][112][113] and plasmonic enhanced LSCs 17,29,145 and/or photovoltaics [222][223][224] in order to create a highly efficient LSC device. Overall, we think that QD based materials offer great opportunities in the development of new light harvesting devices and are highly important for the further development and commercialisation of solar energy technology.…”

Luminescent Solar Concentration with Semiconductor Nanorods and Transfer-Printed Micro-Silicon Solar Cells

“…For this reason, LSC concentration ratios plateau long before the thermodynamic limit. This effect has been shown in recent work with inorganic lumophores, , organic lumophores in microgeometries with transfer-printed silicon , and GaAs solar cells, as well as studied by numerical modeling. − In order for luminescent concentrators to approach their thermodynamic limits, the luminesced light must be trapped in the polymer and directed onto the solar cell. For the most effective light trapping, a lumophore with a narrow emission spectrum and a large Stokes shift is required.…”

Tailoring Luminescent Solar Concentrators for High‐Performance Flexible Double‐Junction III‐V Photovoltaics

“…The transfer-printing assembly technique established for cell fabrication allows tiny cell sizes, programmable spatial scale-up layouts, and re-use of the growth wafer, [6,[34][35][36] facilitating cost-effectiveness and accommodating flexible module implementation. The previous reports successfully demonstrated coplanar LSC module designs with single-junction cells of surface-embedded bifacial cell configuration [11,31,[37][38][39][40][41] (i.e., front for the direct solar flux, rear for the LSC flux) or double-junction cells of LSC/non-LSC multi-terminal tandem stack configuration [37,42,43] (i.e., only top cells in LSC). By contrast, the present coplanar design has distinct configurations of the luminescent waveguide and cell arrangement that can answer balanced photocurrent enhancement for enhancing the output power of two-terminal doublejunction LSC modules.…”