Here, we demonstrate an innovative spherical solar cell design that is capable of harvesting light three-dimensionally by tracking direct sunlight, exploiting diffuse beam, and recycling background reflected light.
Large-scale spherical solar cell based on monocrystalline silicon developed using a corrugated architecture. Flat solar panels still face big limitations when it comes to making the most of the available sunlight each day.
Spherical solar cell modules work efficiently at low angles of direct light during a sunny day, and also collect diffuse radiation more effectively than flat photovoltaic cells on a cloudy day. Second, because spherical solar cell array modules are transparent, the light transmitted through them can be used for the natural lighting of a room.
A CO 2 laser created the appropriate pattern in a polymeric hard mask covering the solar cell and allowed a deep reactive ion etching tool to create grooves in the exposed areas of the silicon solar cell. The flex and bend in those groove areas allowed the researchers to subsequently fold the solar cell into a spherical shape.
Previous solar cell designs have fabricated tiny microscale spherical cells—sometimes made with nanowires or quantum dot cells—on top of a flat surface to help better collect both direct and scattered sunlight, says Rabab Bahabry, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Spherical solar cell technology has several other advantages over conventional flat-cell technology. First, the power output of a module based on spherical solar cells is less dependent on the angle of incidence of the sunlight than a flat photovoltaic module.