The solar noise barrier project: 2. The effect of street art on performance of a large scale luminescent solar concentrator prototype

Noise barriers have been used worldwide to reduce the impact of sound generated from traffic on nearby areas. A common feature to appear on these noise barriers are all manner of graffiti and street art. In this work we describe the relative performance of a large area luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) noise barrier before and after application of street art to one surface. Comparisons are made of performance of East/West facing panels during a sunny day. It is shown that the edge mounted solar cells that are further away from the artwork perform at about 80% of their original performance level, while cells mounted nearby show greater performance decreases, suggesting that the effect of street art is primarily a localized effect. Furthermore, we demonstrate that illumination by sunlight from the rear side of the panel, opposite to the artwork shows less of a performance drop. In summary, the overall performance of a large-scale prototype LSC device is affected by the application of street art due to blocking solar access to the surface, but the effect is mostly confined to areas in the immediate vicinity of the surface modification, and the remaining panel area continues to function at a reasonable level. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.