ICANS 23 – Contributed Article

Using amorphous silicon solar cells to boost the viability of luminescent solar concentrators

  1. Daniel J. Farrell1,†,
  2. Wilfried G. J. H. M. van Sark2,3,
  3. Steven T. Velthuijsen2,
  4. Ruud E. I. Schropp2

Article first published online: 23 FEB 2010

DOI: 10.1002/pssc.200982866

Issue

physica status solidi (c)

physica status solidi (c)

Special Issue: 23rd International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors (ICANS 23) • E-MRS 2009 Spring Meeting, Symposium N – Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene

Volume 7, Issue 3-4, pages 1045–1048, April 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Farrell, D. J., Sark, W. G. J. H. M. v., Velthuijsen, S. T. and Schropp, R. E. I. (2010), Using amorphous silicon solar cells to boost the viability of luminescent solar concentrators. physica status solidi (c), 7: 1045–1048. doi: 10.1002/pssc.200982866

Author Information

  1. 1

    Physics Department, Imperial College London, South Kensington campus, SW7 2AZ, London, U.K.

  2. 2

    Utrecht University, Faculty of Science, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Nanophotonics – Physics of Devices, P.O. Box 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands

  3. 3

    Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Science, Technology and Society, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands

  1. †

    http://www.imperial.ac.uk/qpv

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 23 MAR 2010
  2. Article first published online: 23 FEB 2010
  3. Manuscript Revised: 4 NOV 2009
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 4 NOV 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 3 AUG 2009

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Keywords:

  • 84.60.Bk;
  • 84.60.Jt

Abstract

We have, for the first time, designed and fabricated hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells to be used in conjunction with Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs). LSCs are planar plastic sheets doped with organic dyes that absorb solar illumination and down shift the energy to narrowband luminescence which is collected by solar cells attached to the sheet edge.

We fabricated an LSC module with two bonded solar cells and performed characterisation with the cells connected in series and parallel configurations. We find that the LSC module has an optical collection efficiency of 9.5% and an optimum power conversion efficiency of approaching 1% when the cells are in a parallel connection. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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