The solar noise barrier project: 2. The effect of street art on performance of a large scale luminescent solar concentrator prototype

Michael G Debije,Minne M De Jong,Vikram A Rajkumar,Chris Tzikas

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2017.07.025

Michael G Debije, Minne M De Jong + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2017.07.025

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Journal: Renewable Energy	Publication Date: Jul 5, 2017
Citations: 41	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Eindhoven University of Technology

Abstract

Noise barriers have been used worldwide to reduce the impact of sound generated from traffic on nearby areas. A common feature to appear on these noise barriers are all manner of graffiti and street art. In this work we describe the relative performance of a large area luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) noise barrier before and after application of street art to one surface. Comparisons are made of performance of East/West facing panels during a sunny day. It is shown that the edge mounted solar cells that are further away from the artwork perform at about 80% of their original performance level, while cells mounted nearby show greater performance decreases, suggesting that the effect of street art is primarily a localized effect. Furthermore, we demonstrate that illumination by sunlight from the rear side of the panel, opposite to the artwork shows less of a performance drop. In summary, the overall performance of a large-scale prototype LSC device is affected by the application of street art due to blocking solar access to the surface, but the effect is mostly confined to areas in the immediate vicinity of the surface modification, and the remaining panel area continues to function at a reasonable level.

Highlights

As lessening dependence on oil for energy production has become a priority in many areas, solar panels are becoming ubiquitous with the landscape in many parts of the world
In this work we describe the relative performance of a large area luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) noise barrier before and after application of street art to one surface
The overall performance of a large-scale prototype LSC device is affected by the application of street art due to blocking solar access to the surface, but the effect is mostly confined to areas in the immediate vicinity of the surface modification, and the remaining panel area continues to function at a reasonable level

Summary

Introduction

As lessening dependence on oil for energy production has become a priority in many areas, solar panels are becoming ubiquitous with the landscape in many parts of the world. PVs are negatively affected by surface shading but there are several concepts that use different cell interconnection approaches to reduce the negative effects of shading [15,16]. We first report on the effect of shading of a scale model LSC device in the laboratory to find the effect on edge output of light blockage of differently sized obstructions at various distanced from the edge-attached photovoltaic cells. We use the results of the work on the scale model to help describe the effect of graffiti and street art [19] applied to the lightguide surface of the full-size solar noise barrier

Experimental

Model device

Full-scale device

Conclusions