Pyramid-like Lenses Could Cause A Solar Power Revolution?

[Kornee]

https://medium.com/predict/pyramid-like-...af6f93e16f
Graded index is one optics principle which combined with another easy to implement one also of classic optics, demonstrably overthrows the supposedly inviolable 2nd Law of thermodynamics. Something I discovered around 3 decades ago and wrote of briefly elsewhere here.
Anyway, this 'pyramid scheme' is imo somewhat iffy. Real world results fall well short of the theoretical ideal system. Further, overall weight looks set to drastically ramp up wrt 'naked' solar cells, as would all up manufacturing costs.
There is a way to obviate the weight issue quite elegantly, but the researchers seem unaware of it.

[C C]

Good innovation. Hopefully the Praetorium Sentinel Society won't snuff it before showtime.

"This lens effectively takes incoming light from any angle and, using diffraction, bends it to be perpendicular to the solar panel. We have lenses that already do this, such as some fresnel lenses, but this multi-layer approach produces far better results due to an increase in light that is directly perpendicular to the panel.

So, strapping this lens to a stationary solar panel can boost the amount of power it makes over the course of the day. In the morning, the light will hit the lens at an angle and be diffracted to hit the panel straight, creating more power. At midday, the lens allows the light to pass straight through, allowing it to make the same amount of power as usual. Then in the evening, the same thing happens as in the morning, yet again creating more power than normal. But it also increases power during overcast times (even at midday), where the light is very diffuse as it aligns it all to hit the panel head-on. So even though these lenses don’t increase peak power, the average amount of power produced can be much higher than a standard solar panel."

[Kornee]

Good innovation. Hopefully the Praetorium Sentinel Society won't snuff it before showtime.

"This lens effectively takes incoming light from any angle and, using diffraction, bends it to be perpendicular to the solar panel. We have lenses that already do this, such as some fresnel lenses, but this multi-layer approach produces far better results due to an increase in light that is directly perpendicular to the panel.

So, strapping this lens to a stationary solar panel can boost the amount of power it makes over the course of the day. In the morning, the light will hit the lens at an angle and be diffracted to hit the panel straight, creating more power. At midday, the lens allows the light to pass straight through, allowing it to make the same amount of power as usual. Then in the evening, the same thing happens as in the morning, yet again creating more power than normal. But it also increases power during overcast times (even at midday), where the light is very diffuse as it aligns it all to hit the panel head-on. So even though these lenses don’t increase peak power, the average amount of power produced can be much higher than a standard solar panel."

https://www.rit.edu/news/rits-sentinel-s...ual-donors
No mention of Praetorium but we all know how secret societies work - right?

So, I did mention an elegant way around the weight issue. Not only that, but one potentially gains somewhat more effective collecting area for a given array overall area. A quick search:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication...ill_factor
There are 2D micro patterning ones as well but above article suffices to indicate the general idea.

Maybe I should contact the 'pyramid scheme' folks and point that out.

[Magical Realist]

In related news, scientists invented invisible solar panels with up to 79 % transparency:

https://interestingengineering.com/innov...ansparency

"Transparent solar cells, which have the potential to convert windows, greenhouses, glass panels of smart devices, and more into energy harvesting devices, have taken another step toward becoming a reality.

A team of scientists from the Tohoku University in Japan has created a near-invisible solar cell using indium tin oxide (ITO) as a transparent electrode and tungsten disulfide (WS2) as a photoactive layer.

Remarkably, the cell has the potential to achieve a transparency of 79 percent and can help take the TMD-based near-invisible solar cells from the basics to truly industrialized stages, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

A transparency of 79 percent

But despite recent developments with perovskite and organic semiconductors, the average visible transparency of these solar cells is lower than 70 percent. Still a challenge is creating solar cells that are more transparent.


This type of PV device is known for Schottky junction solar cell. An interface put between a metal and a semiconductor provides the band required for charge separation. The suggested device and ideal band structure separate the photogenerated electron-hole pairs by a difference in the work function between one of the electrodes and the semiconductor.

WS2 is a member of the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) family of materials, which the scientists claim are perfect for near-invisible solar cells due to their acceptable band gaps in the visible light range and greatest absorption co-efficiency per thickness. The ITO-WS2 connection was created by sputtering ITO onto a quartz substrate and growing the WS2 monolayer using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), according to PV Magazine.

The contact barrier between WS2 and ITO was adjusted by coating various thin metals on top of ITO (Mx/ITO) and introducing a thin layer of WO3 between Mx/ITO and the monolayer WS2. As a result, the Schottky barrier height increased dramatically (up to 220 meV), potentially increasing the efficiency of charge carrier separation in this Schottky-type solar cell.

As a result, the researchers found that the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell with the optimized electrode (WO3/Mx/ITO) was more than 1,000 times greater than that of a device employing a regular ITO electrode.

The researchers calculated that a 1cm² solar cell with an extremely high value (79 percent) of average visible transmission might have its total power raised up to 420pW by repeating the experiments on this optimized unit device with the right amount of series and parallel connections.

With the aid of studies like this one, we may eventually develop transparent solar panels, which would have far-reaching ramifications. There are reportedly five to seven billion square meters of glass surfaces in the United States, from phone screens to skyscrapers. Imagine the sheer amount of electricity that could be generated if we could tap into that power.

[Kornee]

The idea isn't new. And while it may have significant niche potential, the fundamental compromise will always be that if efficient at converting light to electricity, one necessarily has to have greatly dimmed light transmission. Forget about a bright sunny view at the same time. Permanent dark tint.

[Kornee]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-0...rightslink
Quote:
"By repeating the experiments on this optimized unit device with an appropriate number of series and parallel connections, P_T could be increased up to 420 pW from a 1-cm^2 solar cell with a very high value (79%) of average visible transmission (AVT)."

At first I thought it had to be typo in the original pop sci article at InterestingEngineering.com MR linked to earlier, but it's repeated often enough in the peer reviewed article linked to above, that there is no typo. That's under half a nano Watt per square centimeter. Or 4.2 milliwatts per square meter.

To put that in perspective, current commercial PV panels output a peak of around ~ 160 W/m^2.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Powe..._274140138

Hence this transparent panel 'breakthrough' offers a dulled view for the privilege of being ~ 0.000026 times as efficient as regular PV panels.
I can't see any market opening. Except maybe as novelty item.

[confused2]

With 1,000 m^2 of the glass you could keep a phone running in power down mode while the sun shines.