Solar Cells and Light Management: Materials, Strategies and Sustainability

Solar Cells and Light Management: Materials, Strategies and Sustainability provides an extensive review on the latest advances in PV materials, along with light management strategies for better exploiting the solar spectrum. Following a brief review of the current status of solar cells, the book discusses different concepts, principles and technologies for solar devices, starting with standard silicon cells and then covering organic-hybrid, DSSC, perovskite, quantum dots and nanostructured oxide solar cells. Other sections focus on light manipulation and spectral modification, materials for spectral conversion, and environmental and sustainably considerations.

An emergy analysis, which is an extension of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, is applied to the study of solar PV systems, thus allowing for effective integrated indicators.

Provides a comprehensive picture of light management strategiesFeatures the most recent advances in the field, including novel materials and advanced solar cell technologiesPresents a resource that is applicable to both new or experienced researchers in the fieldContains a section on environmental and sustainability issues

List of contributors

Preface

1. Solar cells’ evolution and perspectives: a short review

Section I: Solar cells: principles and technologies

2. Silicon solar cells: materials, technologies, architectures

3. Ternary organic solar cells

4. Dye-sensitized solar cells: from synthetic dyes to natural pigments

5. Perovskite solar cells

6. All-oxide solar cells

Section II: Light manipulation and scattering

7. Simulations of conventional and augmented types of solar cells

8. Light trapping by plasmonic nanoparticles

9 Wave-optical front structures on silicon and perovskite thin-film solar cells

10 Organic and perovskite photovoltaics for indoor applications

Section III: Materials for spectral conversion

11. Glass ceramics for frequency conversion

12. Downconversion for 1 mm luminescence in lanthanide and Yb3+ co-doped phosphors

13. Down-shifting by quantum dots for silicon solar cell applications

Section IV: Environmental and sustainability

considerations

14. On sustainable PVesolar exploitation: an emergy analysis

15. Integrating life cycle assessment and commodity chain analysis to explore sustainable and just photovoltaics

Index