Transparent solar panel developed by MSU absorbs invisible ultraviolet rays
- 9 years ago
A Michigan State University research team has developed a transparent solar panel capable of capturing solar energy.
Professor Richard Lunt, MSU assistant professor who headed the research, believes that the panel can be employed in a wide variety of settings.
“It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader. Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there,” Lunt said in a MSU press release.
Most solar panels capture visible spectrum light, which represents just a small segment of electromagnetic wave spectrum. The transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) doesn’t capture visible light, but non-visible ultraviolet waves are absorbed by the device.
The concentrator then converts it into another colorless infrared wavelength and sends it to the edge of the concentrator, where photovoltaic solar cells convert light energy to electricity.
Right now the TLSC is performing at around 1% efficiency, but the MSU team believes it can be optimized to around 5%. Currently, non-transparent luminescent concentrators perform can achieve 7% efficiency, at best.
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Professor Richard Lunt, MSU assistant professor who headed the research, believes that the panel can be employed in a wide variety of settings.
“It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader. Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there,” Lunt said in a MSU press release.
Most solar panels capture visible spectrum light, which represents just a small segment of electromagnetic wave spectrum. The transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) doesn’t capture visible light, but non-visible ultraviolet waves are absorbed by the device.
The concentrator then converts it into another colorless infrared wavelength and sends it to the edge of the concentrator, where photovoltaic solar cells convert light energy to electricity.
Right now the TLSC is performing at around 1% efficiency, but the MSU team believes it can be optimized to around 5%. Currently, non-transparent luminescent concentrators perform can achieve 7% efficiency, at best.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
For news that's fun and never boring, visit our channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS
Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt-WqkTyKK1_70U4bb4k4lQ?sub_confirmation=1
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: https://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Stay connected with us here