Mayukh Saha
Mayukh Saha
March 12, 2024 ·  2 min read

Record-Breaking Transparent Solar Panels Pave Way For Electricity-Generating Windows

Recent studies have displayed a surprising affinity for transparent solar panels. It is possible to install them in various places around Europe. This finding comes simultaneously with scientists being able to achieve a completely new efficiency record for dye-sensitized solar cells. An Ecole Polytechnique Federale du Lausanne team in Switzerland conducted the research. A specially designed photosensitizer dye molecule made the breakthrough possible. This molecule, when combined, was capable of harvesting light throughout the light spectrum that could be visible. [1]

The transparent solar panels, which come under the dye-sensitized cells, do make them quite suitable for their use in greenhouses, windows, and glass facades. The researchers believe that it can also see applications on screens of portable electronic devices. These panels are highly flexible, quite cheap, and conventional roll-printing techniques can create them. On paper, the price-to-performance ratio of the panel is good enough for them to compete with fossil fuel-generated electrical power. 

There have been multiple advancements made in the field of photosensitizers and several other variants of dye-sensitized cells. These have largely improved the performance of the cells under both ambient light conditions and solar sunlight. But the major key that could enhance DSC and the transparent solar panels, would be in the understanding, as well as controlling the assembly of dye molecules on the surface of titanium dioxide nanoparticle films. After all, this is what would obviously favor the creation of electrical charge.

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Transparent Solar Panels Are The Future Of Solar Energy

One such way of creating transparent solar panels would be through co-sensitization. This is an approach of chemical fabrication that produces DSCs with a couple of different dyes that have complementary optical absorption. Notably, this particular method has been quite imperative in moving the power-conversion efficiencies of the DSCs toward severe world-record values. This is because it can combine dyes that are capable of absorbing light from across the entire spectrum of light.

However, this process has proved to be quite ineffective in certain cases since the discovery of the correct dye pairs that are capable of achieving high light absorption takes synthesis, molecular design, and screening. The authors involved in the study of transparent solar panels have stated, “Our findings pave the way for facile access to high-performance DSCs and offer promising prospects for applications as power supply and battery replacement for low-power electronic devices that use ambient light as their energy source.” [2]

Notably, the first commercial applications for this product are already in the process of realization in certain parts of the country. Dye-sensitized solar windows have already been installed in the SwissTech Convention Center. However, the capacity for generating electricity has not been seamless. It has been restricted as a result of a lack of efficiency when compared to other solar cells.

Keep Reading: India’s First Solar-Powered Village Pays Residents’ Electric Bills And Then Some

Sources

  1. Dye-sensitized solar cells achieve a new power conversion efficiency record.” Tech Xplore. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. October 26, 2022.
  2. Record-breaking transparent solar panels pave way for electricity-generating windows.” Independent. Anthony Cuthbertson. October 27, 2022.