Large parts of our homes and offices consist of glass. How nice would it be if you could generate energy with it. Scientists and companies have been working for years on techniques to make this possible. An important step has now been taken in Switzerland to bring this dream closer.
Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a new kind of dye-sensitive solar cell (DSC). That report includes the news site Euronews. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), also known as Grätzel cells, are a type of low-cost solar cells. The technology involves using photosensitive dye on the surface of a semiconductor to convert visible sunlight into energy.
Ambient light
The previous versions of DSCs relied largely on direct sunlight. A previously heard complaint was therefore that DSC technology had only a limited capacity to generate electricity compared to traditional solar panels.
That is now changing. The Swiss have forced a technological breakthrough by allowing them to also capture ambient light, which is then converted into electricity. The missing link was molecules that are activated by light. These transparent photosensitizers can “adsorb” light across the entire visible light spectrum.
“Our findings pave the way for easy access to high-performance DSCs and offer promising prospects for applications such as power supply and battery replacement for low-power electronic devices that use ambient light as a power source,” write the authors of the study, published in the journal Scientific Journal. publication Nature.
Read also: Algae in windows to replace solar panels
Disco
Similar technology is already being used in Denmark. About 12,000 transparent DSC solar panels are attached to the facade of the International School in Copenhagen. The cells provide approximately 300 megawatt hours of electricity per year. The DSC technology thus provides for more than half of the international school’s annual energy needs. The only drawback is that they are blue and therefore not suitable for use as windows.
Work on this type of solar cells is also underway in America. In 2017, a team from Michigan State University published a study on another “transparent luminescent solar concentrator”. This technology can be placed on a window without obstructing the view, writes the scientific site Scientias.
Transparent
“Nobody wants to be behind colored glass,” suggested researcher Richard Lunt. “After all, that results in a very colorful environment, where it looks like you’re in a disco. With our approach we can make the luminescent layer transparent.”
According to the American researchers, transparent solar technologies could cover about 40 percent of the American energy needs in the future and, in combination with solar cells on roofs and adequate battery technology, even 100 percent.
In comparison, this summer solar energy accounted for 12.2 percent of the electricity generated in the European Union; the highest share ever.
Read also: Professor Wim Sinke: “Ten times as much solar energy is possible.”