Coloured and Semi-Transparent Nanowire-based Solar Cells for Building Integrated Photovoltaics

2021/07/20 by Tavakoli, Nasim, Kim, Wonjong, Veeken, Tom +5
#Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2107.09465

Abstract

Semi-transparent photovoltaics (ST-PV) provide smart spatial solutions to integrate solar cells into already-built areas. Here, we study the potential of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) as promising ST-PV. We perform FDTD simulations for different PV materials in a wide range of array geometries, from which we compute PV performance next to perceived appearance. Surprisingly we find an unusual compromise between photocurrent and transmittance as a function of NW diameter that enables NW-based PV to outperform theoretical limits of non-wavelength selective ST-PV. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the robustness of NW arrays to different illumination conditions. We provide the origin behind the outperforming NW array geometries, which is crucial for designing NW-based ST-PV systems based on specific needs.

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