Thermodynamic modelling of luminescent solar concentrators

Chatten, Amanda J.; Farrel, D.; Jermyn, C.; Thomas, Polly; Buxton, Bernard F.; Büchtemann, A.; Danz, R.; Barnham, K.W.J.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2005.1488074

Cited by 25 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The thermodynamic approach (Yablonovitch, 1980;Chatten et al, 2005), based on the detailed balance principle and describing the radiative energy transfer between mesh points in the concentrator plate…”

Section: Computational Methods and Pre-normative Electrical Charactermentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the Edges of a Backside Diffusive Reflector on the External Quantum Efficiency of Luminescent Solar Concentrators: Experimental and Computational Approach

Pravettoni¹,

Lopez²,

Kenny

2016

American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

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Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) have been proposed in the 1970s as cheap planar concentrators for residential applications and nowadays represent a novel idea with excellent perspectives for building integration photovoltaics. The interest in LSCs has increased in the last years, due to improved stability of luminescent dyes, the introduction of quantum dots and nanorods and the overall reported increase in module efficiency. Computational methods have been suddenly applied as an important tool for the description of light dynamics in LSCs. With "raytracing methods" light is described as particle-like (photons) and each particle is tracked. It is precious tool for the description of absorption/reemission events, refraction and internal reflection in LSCs. It is also a very useful approach for the description of LSC edge effects, which may be well described by means of basic geometrical optics and are the subject of this work. The impact of scattering layers on the backside of LSCs is analysed in detail both experimentally and computationally. Results give evidence of the non-wavelength dependent impact of backside diffusers to the external quantum efficiency of LSCs and thus to their overall performance. A possible design of LSC as smart windows in photovoltaic facades is also suggested, where the benefits of the edge effects described are taken into account.

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Section: Computational Methods and Pre-normative Electrical Charactermentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the Edges of a Backside Diffusive Reflector on the External Quantum Efficiency of Luminescent Solar Concentrators: Experimental and Computational Approach

Pravettoni¹,

Lopez²,

Kenny

2016

American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

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“…For mc-Si cells with improved surface passivation and a concomitant improved blue response the relative short current increase has been calculated to be lower (Van Sark 2006). Modeling large area LSCs has indicated the importance of top-surface losses that occur through the escape cone (Chatten et al 2007) both through primary emission and through emission of luminescence that has been reabsorbed and might otherwise have been trapped via total internal reflection or by mirrors. As an example, for an idealized (perfectly transparent host, LQE = 1), mirrored (perfect mirrors on one short and two long edges, and the bottom surface), 40×5×0.5 cm LSC doped with CdSe/ZnS core-shell QDs with emission matched to a GaInP cell, 24% of the AM1.5G spectrum is absorbed.…”

Section: Modeling Of Spectral Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Spectrum Conversion for Photovoltaics Using Nanoparticles

Sark¹,

Meijerink²,

Schropp³

2012

Third Generation Photovoltaics

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“…Currently, there are two approaches of modeling LSCs, namely thermodynamic modeling [10] and ray-tracing modeling [11]. Thermodynamic modeling is a detailed balance model which is based on the radiative energy transfer between mesh points in the concentrator, whereas ray-tracing modeling is used to track every incoming photon and determine its fate [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thermodynamic modeling is a detailed balance model which is based on the radiative energy transfer between mesh points in the concentrator, whereas ray-tracing modeling is used to track every incoming photon and determine its fate [12]. Thermodynamic and tray-tracing models have been used to simulate the performance of LSCs under direct sunlight conditions in order to optimize the performance of LSC with respect to the size of luminescent quantum dots, inclusion of mirrors and multi-layers of the LSC [10][11][12][13][14]. The accuracies of thermodynamic and ray-tracing models are about 4% and 11%, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Hybrid Algorithm Using Thermodynamic and Backward Ray-Tracing Approaches for Modeling Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Lim

Tan

et al. 2010

Energies

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A Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC) is a transparent plate containing luminescent material with photovoltaic (PV) cells attached to its edges. Sunlight entering the plate is absorbed by the luminescent material, which in turn emits light. The emitted light propagates through the plate and arrives at the PV cells through total internal reflection. The ratio of the area of the relatively cheap polymer plate to that of the expensive PV cells is increased, and the cost per unit of solar electricity can be reduced by 75%. To improve the emission performance of LSCs, simulation modeling of LSCs becomes essential. Ray-tracing modeling is a popular approach for simulating LSCs due to its great ability of modeling various LSC structures under direct and diffuse sunlight. However, this approach requires substantial amount of measurement input data. Also, the simulation time is enormous because it is a forward-ray tracing method that traces all the rays propagating from the light source to the concentrator. On the other hand, the thermodynamic approach requires substantially less input parameters and simulation time, but it can only be used to model simple LSC designs with direct sunlight. Therefore, a new hybrid model was developed to perform various simulation studies effectively without facing the issues arisen from the existing ray-tracing and thermodynamic models. The simulation results show that at least 60% of the total output irradiance of a LSC is contributed by the light trapped and channeled by the LSC. The novelty of this hybrid model is the concept of integrating the thermodynamic model with a well-developed OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2010, 3 1832Radiance ray-tracing model, hence making this model as a fast, powerful and cost-effective tool for the design of LSCs.

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Thermodynamic modelling of luminescent solar concentrators

Cited by 25 publications

References 6 publications

Impact of the Edges of a Backside Diffusive Reflector on the External Quantum Efficiency of Luminescent Solar Concentrators: Experimental and Computational Approach

Impact of the Edges of a Backside Diffusive Reflector on the External Quantum Efficiency of Luminescent Solar Concentrators: Experimental and Computational Approach

Solar Spectrum Conversion for Photovoltaics Using Nanoparticles

A New Hybrid Algorithm Using Thermodynamic and Backward Ray-Tracing Approaches for Modeling Luminescent Solar Concentrators

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