Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC)

The idea is to capture light into semi or totally transparent plastic panels and funnel it to the edges exploiting a wave guide. Once light is trapped and concentrated at the edges, traditional PV cells, connected to LSC like a frame, transform light into electricity. In this way we can use a window to generate energy. Possible installations are on skyscrapers, greenhouses, noise barrier, car shelters and many others.

Quantum dots are made of inorganic materials that last longer under irradiation than previous proposed chromophores for LSC. QDs technology gave a new youth to LSC especially in this era of rising environmental concerns about the way our society produce energy.

SiQDs offer several advantages versus the competitors that are organic molecules, rare earths complexes and traditional quantum dots. First, absorption of light is mostly in the UV region so it is possible to build perfectly transparent windows and second,  thanks to the large apparent Stoke-shift the re-absorption of emitted light is minimal.