Research Projects

Urban landscapes are increasingly using glass walls and windows for aesthetics, ease of integration, and to reduce lighting requirements. However, this also increases the heat load due to higher penetration of infrared radiation, leading to increased cooling costs. To make these buildings more energy-efficient, transparent photovoltaic panels can be integrated into glass walls, known as building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) or building applied photovoltaics (BAPV). Transparent photovoltaics face a tradeoff between transparency and efficiency. To achieve their full potential, it is necessary to design panels that are not only transparent but also offer substantial power conversion efficiency. This requires careful engineering and integration of solar cells in the form of multijunction or tandem solar cells. The major challenge lies in designing wavelength selective absorbing materials that only absorb the UV and NIR part of the radiation while not absorbing the visible part. This project aims to develop transparent solar cells with power conversion efficiency of 12% at lab-scale (6 cm2) and 8% in minimodules (100 cm2) with transparency exceeding 50%. The project has been divided into several work packages (WP1-WP4), with WP1 focusing on developing selective absorption materials in UV and NIR ranges while being transparent to visible radiation. WP2 will lead to the development of single junction devices that absorb UV and NIR radiation using selected materials developed in WP1. WP3 will integrate single junction devices into multijunction tandem devices, and WP4 will target scaling up and prototyping tandem devices to 100 cm2.