Tandem luminescent solar concentrators based on rare earth doped SiAlON and quantum dot thin films

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Commercial buildings account for 40% of total energy consumption, making it critical to exploit alternative energy sources to reduce their energy impact. Building Integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) has been identified as a promising route to integrate renewable energy into cities. Electricity-generating solar windows represent the "holy grail" in BIPV, as windows are ubiquitous in our cities and thus offer vastly higher surface area than rooftops or land. Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) are a low-cost alternative to complex, multi-layer, semi-transparent solar cells based on organic, CIGS or Si thin films. However, LSCs face two major challenges. They present low transparency, which reduces their social acceptance for large-scale application, and their limited spectral absorption range and high self-absorption losses result in poor LSC power efficiencies (<2-3%) especially for large area (>1 m2) LSCs.In this project we aim to develop scalable, high-performance LSCs, based on a multilayer tandem architecture. Rare-earth-doped SiAlON thin films deposited on glass will be used as external layers for a laminated LSC. The inner layer will consist of a quantum dot thin film with complementary absorption to SiAlON. The device will absorb the entire visible solar spectrum and concentrate it in the glass waveguides without self-absorption losses towards solar cells, yielding high power conversion efficiency over 5%. This project could provide the required steps towards the successful development and deployment of a commercial LSC technology, which offers profound potential benefits to the environment and economy.This collaborative pursuit of Pi-Sol Technologies Inc. with the complementary academic teams at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and their collaborators at Sun Moon University will lead to new advanced nanomaterial design, new BIPV devices, and innovative intellectual property, contributing to the growth of Canadian companies working on R&D in the energy sector.