Shining Lights on Limits: Optimizing Luminescent Solar Concentrators for Solar Windows

Abstract

The luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) can function as an electricity-generating window whose performance is hindered by an inherent trade-off between power conversion efficiency and visible light transmission. To optimize this trade-off, a numerical algorithm is used to find the power conversion efficiency of 92 luminophores, ensuring an average visible transmission >55% and a color rendering index >70. Furthermore, double- and triple-stacked LSC configurations and single LSCs with two- or three-embedded luminophores are optimized. All tested LSC configurations are found to be limited to a power conversion efficiency of around 1% for window-appropriate transparencies.