A review on semitransparent solar cells for agricultural application

Modern agriculture dramatically increases food production and continuously plays a critical role to remit the food crisis in the world. However, agricultural modernization also consumes more energy and land than the traditional small-scale peasant farming. The integration of photovoltaics into modern agriculture is a promising method to utilize the vast agricultural land efficiently and provide extra energy for crop production. Due to the tunable energy of the organic molecules, semitransparent organic solar cell serves as an ideal candidate. Rationally designed devices can allow sunlight with selected wavelengths to pass though and get absorbed by the plants for photosynthesis. Meanwhile, relatively high photovoltaic performances are also preferred for energy generation. In this article, important studies of semitransparent organic solar cells for agricultural applications are reviewed, and the design routes and strategies are summarized. The perspectives for the future research on agricultural photovoltaics are also presented. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Modern agriculture has significantly increased food production, but at the cost of consuming more energy and land. The integration of photovoltaics into modern agriculture shows promise in efficiently utilizing agricultural land and providing extra energy for crop production.