Improvement in the performance of luminescent solar concentrator using array of cylindrical optical fibers

Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) harvest solar radiation over large areas and concentrate this light onto edge-mounted solar cells. Here, we demonstrate that the addition of cylindrical optical fibers, along with a white scattering layer on the bottom side of the LSC, has a significant positive impact on the energy output of the LSC system. We show that the increased energy output is due to the additional light trapping modes provided by the array of cylindrical optical fibers. Moreover, we experimentally determine that the use of cylindrical optical fibers is more effective in the case of large size LSC. In addition, the photovoltaic response of our prepared devices is obtained, and the results reveal that the power conversion efficiency of the LSC containing cylindrical optical fibers along with a white scattering layer is similar to 65% more than that of the LSC with a black absorbing layer, and similar to 3.3% more than that of the LSC with only a white scattering layer. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.