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What if your windows could pull double-duty as solar panels by harvesting some of the energy in sunshine? That's the idea behind the organic solar concentrator, a new kind of solar powering device. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology coated thin glass plates with organic dyes that absorb certain colors of light while letting others pass through. The dyes redirect the solar energy by absorbing and then reemitting the light toward the window's edges, where regular (opaque) solar cells convert it into electricity. Unlike mirror-based solar concentrators, the new system, described in Science, does not have to be cooled. The researchers say they still need to improve the system's durability and efficiency—estimated at 6.8 percent—before they can think about bringing it to market.
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Add CommentThis is a substantially improved version of a concentrator developed & used in the 1970's & 1980's. Fluorescent dyes absorb incident photons of light, and re-emit photns of generally lower frequency & energy. The re-emitted light is in all directions -- also directions beyond the critical angle for the glass (or plexiglass . . ). Photons in such directions undergo total internal reflection when striking the glass-air interface, and are thus channelled to the edge of the glass sheet, where compact high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cells convert the energy of these photons into electricity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy having different successive sheets doped (or rather surface treated) with different dyes, different frequencies (that is, different wavelengths) of light can be directed to different types of PV cells -- each frequency band to cells that are especially efficient for this particular frequency band. In this way, a big part of the solar spectrum can be used efficiently.
Also, (part of the) light from a big window area can be directed to compact cells situated at the edges of the window.