Luminescent Solar Concentrators: A Review of Nanoengineering Opportunities for Reducing Surface Losses

Luminescent solar concentrators are a lesser-known solar power technology that have the potential to make their way into the constellation of building integrated photovoltaics products. A transparent plastic sheet with solar cells on its edges incorporating luminescent species acts as a wave guide to concentrate light entering through its exposed surface to smaller area photovoltaics. Although they have many advantages, the technology's low efficiency constitutes a major barrier to potential commercialization. While there are several factors contributing to this issue, the low efficiency is largely attributed to the escape cone losses through the light-receiving, large area surfaces. Advances in nanoengineering have provided new, promising ways to reduce these losses. Spectrally selective mirrors, cholesteric mirrors, photonic crystals, asymmetric light transmission interfaces, and quantum dots and dyes with anisotropic emission are all possible solutions that can be engineered at the nanoscale to reduce surface losses and improve overall performance of luminescent solar concentrators. Continued research and improvements in these fields could enable luminescent solar concentrators to become staple products for green buildings.