The solar noise barrier project: 2. The effect of street art on performance of a large scale luminescent solar concentrator prototype

Noise barriers have been used worldwide to reduce the impact of sound generated from traffic on nearby areas. A common feature to appear on these noise barriers are all manner of graffiti and street art. In this work we describe the relative performance of a large area luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) noise barrier before and after application of street art to one surface. Comparisons are made of performance of East/West facing panels during a sunny day. It is shown that the edge mounted solar cells that are further away from the artwork perform at about 80% of their original performance level, while cells mounted nearby show greater performance decreases, suggesting that the effect of street art is primarily a localized effect. Furthermore, we demonstrate that illumination by sunlight from the rear side of the panel, opposite to the artwork shows less of a performance drop. In summary, the overall performance of a large-scale prototype LSC device is affected by the application of street art due to blocking solar access to the surface, but the effect is mostly confined to areas in the immediate vicinity of the surface modification, and the remaining panel area continues to function at a reasonable level.

[1]  Michael G. Debije,et al.  The effect of a scattering layer on the edge output of a luminescent solar concentrator , 2009 .

[2]  C. Reinhart,et al.  A method for predicting city-wide electricity gains from photovoltaic panels based on LiDAR and GIS data combined with hourly Daysim simulations , 2013 .

[3]  Yecid Muñoz,et al.  Analysis of mismatch and shading effects in a photovoltaic array using different technologies , 2014 .

[4]  F. Dimroth,et al.  Increasing the efficiency of fluorescent concentrator systems , 2009 .

[5]  Michael G. Debije,et al.  The solar noise barrier project: 1. Effect of incident light orientation on the performance of a large-scale luminescent solar concentrator noise barrier , 2017 .

[6]  Sonia Leva,et al.  Experimental investigation of partial shading scenarios on PV (photovoltaic) modules , 2013 .

[7]  Hunter McDaniel,et al.  Highly efficient large-area colourless luminescent solar concentrators using heavy-metal-free colloidal quantum dots. , 2015, Nature nanotechnology.

[8]  M. Debije,et al.  Monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic luminescent solar concentrator with 4.2% power conversion efficiency. , 2012, Optics letters.

[9]  Bjørn Petter Jelle,et al.  Building integrated photovoltaic products: A state-of-the-art review and future research opportunities , 2012 .

[10]  Ajoy Kumar Chakraborty,et al.  Computer simulation of the influence of shading on a solar photovoltaic array , 2017 .

[11]  Yoshiaki Kanamori,et al.  Wide-Angle Antireflection Effect of Subwavelength Structures for Solar Cells , 2007 .

[12]  Cameron McAuliffe,et al.  Graffiti or Street Art? Negotiating the Moral Geographies of the Creative City , 2012 .

[13]  Martin C. Schubert,et al.  Illumination and Temperature Dependence of Breakdown Mechanisms in Multi-crystalline Silicon Solar Cells , 2013 .

[14]  Jae Ho Yun,et al.  Comprehensive review on material requirements, present status, and future prospects for building-integrated semitransparent photovoltaics (BISTPV) , 2016 .

[15]  J. Lambe,et al.  Luminescent greenhouse collector for solar radiation. , 1976, Applied optics.

[16]  Michael G. Debije,et al.  Direct versus indirect illumination of a prototype luminescent solar concentrator , 2015 .

[17]  Paul P. C. Verbunt,et al.  Thirty Years of Luminescent Solar Concentrator Research: Solar Energy for the Built Environment , 2012 .

[18]  G. Wagenblast,et al.  New perylene and violanthrone dyestuffs for fluorescent collectors , 1989 .

[19]  Ewan D. Dunlop,et al.  A luminescent solar concentrator with 7.1% power conversion efficiency , 2008 .