Planar solar energy converter and concentrator based on uranyl-doped glass

A MAJOR improvement of solar cell efficiency is described here which uses a fluorescent plane glass to convert and concentrate the ultraviolet (UV) and blue part of the solar spectrum, thus increasing the possibilities of photovoltaic solar energy conversion. An advantage of our device is that the heat energy coming directly from the Sun will be dissipated over the large area of the glass and only the energy in the visible part of the spectrum will reach the solar cell. Moreover, the excess between the absorbed and band-gap energy which is evolved as heat in the solar cell will be diminished by decreasing the difference in wavelength between the useful and excess energy, and thus the solar cell will be heated to a much lesser extent.