Help the development of the site, sharing the article with friends!
Luminescent photovoltaic windows
It is exciting to see the technological changes that are taking place in the field of renewables. Every month a new technological advance appears that further facilitates the expansion of sustainable energy.
If you add a good idea to that technological advance, the result is usually quite surprising. Examples; from windows filled with water that have a high impact on energy saving or solar windows that you can already buy directly.
Another technology in the renewables sector that is quite unknown - although it has been in the market for a long time - and that can be integrated into windows with great potential, is the so-called Luminescent Solar Concentrators (More information LSC).
A promising photovoltaic innovation that can be integrated into buildings… And how does that work?
The photovoltaic solar cells have been performing a double function: sunlight capture and then the conversion of it into electricity. Through the solar concentrators it is possible to separate and optimize these two functions.
Actually, it is as if we have a magnifying glass; capture, concentrate and intensify solar radiation in a small area where the photovoltaic cell that would be in the window frame is located
Now let's imagine! If we already know how to take advantage of the sunlight with the LSC technology and we know how it works … Couldn't we also reuse the artificial lighting that we generate inside a home? Could we take advantage of that light that an LED produces to generate more electricity while we are at home at night? Based on LSC technology.
And at this point, is where the engineers of the Rice University who have proposed a solution for next-generation energy harvesting: Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC) with conjugated polymers in windows Now we can capture the ambient light from an LED!
The researchers designed and built one-square-meter "windows" that sandwiched a conjugated polymer (this is where the big secret lies) between two transparent acrylic panels. Result, to capture energy produced by artificial lighting from inside the house as well as from the Sun.
Engineers have built crystals that redirect sunlight or lighting from inside a home to solar cells
The polymeric compound from the Rice University laboratory, call PNV. It absorbs and emits red light, but if you adjust the molecular ingredients, it is capable of absorbing light in a variety of colors. The trick is that, as a waveguide, it accepts light from any direction, but restricts how it comes out, concentrating it on solar cells that convert it into electricity.
Based on the findings of the project's lead engineer Yilin li. In the test units carried out, less energy is collected from the Sun than in commercial solar cells, which typically convert around 20% of sunlight into electricity.
But the windows with LSC technology they never stop working as they do not depend on sunlight, and, here, we can suspect the benefits it can have on any building.
In fact, tests showed that were more efficient at converting ambient light from LEDs than direct sunlight, even though the sunlight was 100 times stronger.
"Even indoors, if you lift a panel, you can see a very strong photoluminescence on the edge"Yilin Li commented. The panels he tested showed energy conversion efficiency of up to 2.9% in direct sunlight and 3.6% in ambient LED light.
The laboratory also simulated a project for a single-family home and its energy efficiency in energy return. In truth, the panels provided somewhat less energy than the home consumed, but obviously, they would continue to contribute to the needs of the home.
The polymer could also be adjusted to convert energy from infrared and ultraviolet light, allowing those panels to remain transparent. It is a great step of innovation in the renewables sector, with a fairly unknown technology that can contribute a lot.
If you liked the article, rate and share!
