Abstract
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are being developed as a potentially low cost-per-Wp photovoltaic device, suited for applications especially in the built environment. LSCs generally consist of transparent polymer sheets doped with luminescent species, either organic dye molecules or semiconductor nanocrystals. Direct and diffuse incident sunlight is absorbed by the luminescent species and emitted at redshifted wavelengths with high quantum efficiency. Optimum design ensures that a large fraction of emitted light is trapped in the sheet, which travels to the edges where it can be collected by one or more mono- or bifacial solar cells, with minimum losses due to absorption in the sheet and re-absorption by the luminescent species. Today’s record efficieny is 7%, however, 10-15% is within reach. Optimized luminescent solar concentrators potentially offer lower cost per unit of power compared to conventional solar cells. Moreover, LSCs have an increased conversion efficiency for overcast and cloudy sky conditions, having a large fraction of diffuse irradiation, which is blueshifted compared to clear sky conditions. As diffuse irradiation conditions are omnipresent throughout mid- and northern-European countries, annual performance of LSCs is expected to be better in terms of kWh/Wp compared to conventional PV.
Highlights
The key driver in global solar photovoltaic energy technology today still is lowering the cost per unit of power generated, in which fundamental research toward reaching high conversion efficiencies is going hand in hand with research in lowering production cost
As diffuse irradiation conditions are omnipresent throughout mid- and northern-European countries, annual performance of Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) is expected to be better in terms of kWh/Wp compared to conventional PV
Hyldahl et al [26] used commercially available CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots (QDs) with QE=57% in LSCs, both liquid (QDs dissolved in toluene, between two 6.2x6.2x0.3 cm glass plates) and solid (QDs dispersed in epoxy), and they obtained an efficiency of 3.98% and 1.97%, respectively
Summary
The key driver in global solar photovoltaic energy technology today still is lowering the cost per unit of power generated, in which fundamental research toward reaching high conversion efficiencies is going hand in hand with research in lowering production cost. Enormous progress has been made in the past decades, leading to cumulative installed capacity of 67.4 GW worldwide at the end of 2011 [1] and module cost between 0.8-2 Euro/Wp, depending on technology This already has brought electricity cost close to the price of ~0.2 Euro/kWh consumers pay today for some European countries, but is still far off from bulk electricity generation cost of ~0.04 Euro/kWh for conventional, fossil-fuel based power plants. LSCs consist of a highly transparent plastic, in which luminescent species, usually organic dye molecules, are dispersed, see Fig. 1. These dyes absorb incident light and emit it at a red-shifted wavelength, with high quantum efficiency. Nanocrystals or quantum dots (QDs) are increasingly used replacing the organic dyes; LSCs are referred to as Quantum Dot Concentrators (QDCs) [8]
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