Therefore, the fabrication of specially designed solar cells for indoor applications is not an easy task. Different parameters of solar cells must be optimized for indoor light conditions. The device should be designed in such a manner that it can operate efficiently under the illumination of the most commonly used indoor light sources.
Getting started with indoor solar is easy! PowerFilm offers several standard designs and plug and play development kits that include everything you need to power a device with an indoor PV cell.
These solar cells can be classified into four different categories, namely, inorganic solar cells (ISCs) [ 14, 24, 25 ], dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [ 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 ], organic solar cells (OSCs) [ 13, 16, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 ], and perovskite solar cells (PVSCs).
Our thin-film flexible Indoor Light and Classic Application solar panels are well suited for low-power IoT applications in indoor and outdoor environments. Indoor panels are rated at 200 / 1000 lux and outdoor modules are rated at 25% / 100% sun intensity.
In actuality, indoor lighting can be more than 1,000 times less intense than direct sunlight. That means there’s 1,000 times less power available for a solar panel to collect. At light intensities of 50% of direct sun and below, minor material defects and parasitic leakage can quickly reduce the output of a regular solar panel to zero.
Solar Cells Based on Organic Materials for Indoor Applications Similar to DSSCs, solar cells based on organic materials are promising for indoor applications. Several years after the first development of OSCs, we have achieved an efficiency of approximately 17.4% for outdoor applications (NREL best research cell efficiency table).