Thermodynamic modelling of luminescent solar concentrators

Abstract

Luminescent solar collectors have advantages over geometric concentrators in that tracking is unnecessary and both direct and diffuse radiation can be collected. We have developed self-consistent thermodynamic models for single layer planar concentrators and modules and here we extend the approach to stacks of concentrator slabs that allow better utilization of the solar spectrum. We present experimental and theoretical results on single concentrator slabs and two layer stacks of highly luminescent dyes in a polyacrylate and find that the models show excellent agreement with experiment.