A team of researchers has designed a novel energy solution that can generate power from sunlight outside, as well as from the light being used inside your home or workspace.
As well as being able to utilise light from any direction, the panels involved offer a colourful alternative to traditional solar panels, with differently attuned models able to absorb and emit different colours from the light.
The researchers, from Rice University in Texas, call the devices luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs).
They comprise a thin layer of conjugated polymer sandwiched between clear acrylic panels.
The central polymer layer is the important part of the device, as it is able to absorb specific wavelengths from incoming light, before directing it to solar cells that line the edges of the unit.
The polymer acts as a waveguide, meaning that it absorbs light coming in from any direction and from either side of the panel, but controls how it leaves.
This allows it to guide the captured light to the solar cells, where it can be converted to electricity.
Lead researcher Yilin Li, who started the project as part of a ‘smart glass’ competition, said that the idea was to use integrated photovoltaics to help improve energy use within buildings.
Panels can gather energy from internal and external light sources
He said that solar panels located on the roof were the current mainstream solution, but these had limitations as they have to face the sunlight to improve efficiency.
Li also said that they weren’t aesthetically pleasing compared to the “colourful, transparent or translucent solar collectors” that could be attached to windows or the outside of the building.
The amount of energy produced by the panels does not currently measure up to that harvested by traditional solar panels, which can convert around a fifth of solar energy into electricity.
The prototype LSCs convert around 2.9% of direct sunlight but are slightly more effective at capturing ambient light, converting 3.6% of ambient LED lighting.
This also means that they can continue to work once the sun goes down, essentially recycling a certain amount of internal electric lighting from inside the building.
The LSCs constructed by the team were a foot square and designed to absorb and emit red light.
They can, however, be adjusted to use different colours of the spectrum by changing the molecular ingredients in the polymer.
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