Photoelectric engineering of all-weather bifacial solar cells in the dark

Abstract

A promising but challenging problem for state-of-the-art solar cells is to persistently generate power in the daytime and dark. To address this profound issue, all-weather bifacial solar cells are built by combining long persistence phosphor (LPP) tailored fluorescent film with bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells. On behalf of the solar energy storage and fluorescent excitation behaviors of LPP phosphors, the so-called all-weather solar cells yield a maximized photoelectric conversion efficiency of 10.04% and a dark efficiency as high as 21%. Moreover, the newly launched all-weather solar cells with 32 modules can lighten a lamp, demonstrating a predictable application in future energy harvesting. The current work could also extend our knowledge to more advanced all-weather solar cells.