Waveguide fiber dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, we report the results of lightweight waveguide fiber dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSCs) with built-in luminescent solar concentrator (LSC). The effect of different LSC designs on the photovoltaic performance of waveguide devices was analyzed. An enhancement factor of up to 5.7 in the maximum output power of FDSCs was realized through omnidirectional absorption enhancement over a large area. The improvement in the output power of semi-transparent waveguide FDSCs was also achieved in the large tilted angle range from 0 degrees to 80 degrees and 100 degrees to 180 degrees. FDSCs show reasonable photovoltaic performance under natural sunlight at a near vertical angle and even under the shade. Our results indicate that waveguide FDSCs thus developed are highly viable for application in practical solar windows. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.