Solar harvesting through multiple semi-transparent cadmium telluride solar panels for collective energy generation

Abstract

Among major energy conversion methods, photovoltaic (PV) solar cells have been the most popular and widely employed for a variety of applications. Although a PV solar panel has been shown as one of the most efficient green energy sources, its 2D surface solar light harvesting has reached great limitations as it requires large surface areas. There is, therefore, an increasing need to seek solar harvest in a three-dimensional fashion for enhanced energy density. In addition to a conventional 2D solar panel in the x-y area, we extend another dimension of solar harvesting in the z-axis through multiple CdTe solar panels arranged in parallel. The high transparency allows sunlight to partially penetrate multiple solar panels, resulting in significantly increased solar harvesting surface area in a 3D fashion. The advantages of the 3D multi-panel solar harvesting system include: i) enlarged solar light collecting surface area, therefore increased energy density, ii) the total output power from multiple panels can exceed that of the single panel, and iii) significantly reduced surface area needed for densely populated cities. With five CdTe solar panels of different transparencies in parallel, the multilayer system can produce collective output power 233% higher than that of the single solar panel under the same surface area when arranged in descending (i.e., PV panel with the highest transparency on top and lowest at bottom). The PCE of the multi-panel system has also increased 233% in descending order indicating the viability of 3D solar harvesting. The multi-panel system will dimensionally transform solar harvesting from 2D to 3D for more efficient energy generation.