Transparent and Colored Solar Photovoltaics for Building Integration

Abstract

Building‐integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) stand as a promising solution to provide renewable electricity for achieving zero‐energy buildings, although still hindered from large‐scale implementations due to the difficulty of traditional photovoltaic modules in meeting the standards and aesthetics of architectural materials. The emergence of new photovoltaic materials and devices could pave the way for the future through offering diversity and tunability in colors and transparency along with comparable performance. Herein the recent advances in BIPVs are discussed, starting from an overview of various photovoltaic technologies regarding their material characteristics, state of the art, and adaptability to the built environment. The transparent and colored photovoltaic technologies are then respectively emphasized, concerning design principles, theoretical analysis, technical routes, and corresponding demonstration studies. The various strategies, including the materials and structures adopted to modify the transparency and color of solar cells, are highlighted. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives are addressed, followed by an outlook on factors that are critical for large‐scale implementation of BIPVs in the future.

Characterization of the Stability of Indium Tin Oxide and Functional Layers for Semitransparent Back‐Contact Applications on Cu(in,Ga)Se2Solar Cells

“…When the solar cell absorber is of opaque thickness, which is the case of high-efficiency CIGSe, the semitransparency of the device is achieved by means of spatial segmentation, [13,22,23] consisting of removing parts of the absorber layer from selected areas. Thus, solar light is absorbed in the regions with the remaining absorber and it is transmitted in the regions where the absorber has been removed.…”

Functional optical design of thickness-optimized transparent conductive dielectric-metal-dielectric plasmonic structure

“…In addition to optical optimisation, the dielectrics in the DMD structure can also affect the electrical performance of the optoelectronic device they are integrated into. Transition metal oxides (TMOs), which have high transparency in the VR, work functions ranging from 2 to 7 eV, and wideband gaps, can be used as a dielectric layer in DMDs 27 . Thus, TMOs can also act as electron transport layer (ETL) and hole transport layer (HTL) in structures where the DMD system is integrated 10 .…”

Bifacial Color‐Tunable Transparent Photovoltaics for Application as Building‐Integrated Photovoltaics

“…[ 12 ] Researches have been conducted to increase the efficiency of semitransparent solar cells by using various material compositions, [ 9 ] architectures, [ 13 ] and selective wavelength absorption. [ 14 ] However, practical applications have been retarded due to issues around the manufacturing methods, [ 15 ] toxic element [ 16 ] and material stability. [ 17,18 ] In particular, despite their high efficiency, the small device size is an important challenge that must be resolved.…”