We report, for the first time, about an intermediate band solar cell implemented with InAs/AlGaAs quantum dots whose photoresponse expands from 250 to ∼6000  nm. To our knowledge, this is the broadest quantum efficiency reported to date for a solar cell and demonstrates that the intermediate band solar cell is capable of producing photocurrent when illuminated with photons whose energy equals t...

1 Abstract-The present paper presents an overview of the main characteristics of a novel kind of solar thermal application called solar chimney power plant. It is a technology of electric power generation using solar energy by employing basic physics that when air is heated it rises. The created updraft can be used to turn a turbine placed at an appropriate position within a tall chimney to gen...

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tai...

Organic solar cells show great promise as an economically and environmentally friendly technology to utilize solar energy because of their simple fabrication processes and minimal material usage. However, new innovations and breakthroughs are needed for organic solar cell technology to become competitive in the future. This article reviews research efforts and accomplishments focusing on three ...

The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been regarded as one of the most promising new generation solar cells. Tremendous research efforts have been invested to improve the efficiency of solar energy conversion which is generally determined by the light harvesting efficiency, electron injection efficiency and undesirable electron lifetime. In this review, various characteristics of dyesensit...

In this paper, a new solar-heated generation system with capacity of 10kW is designed. The system is based on solar-heated Rankine cycle. The CPC solar energy collector array is used as the main heat source, and the gas boiler as the assistant heat source. The heat storage facility provides heat for put-off 24 hours generating without sun’s radiation. The paper is focused on the analysis of fou...

In most of today solar cells the absorption of photons, which results in the generation of the charge carriers, and the subsequent separation of the photo-generated charge carriers take place in semiconductor materials. Therefore, the semiconductor layers are the most important parts of a solar cell; they form the hart of the solar cell. There are a number of different semiconductor materials t...

The optical conversion of incoherent solar radiation into a bright, coherent laser beam enables the application of nonlinear optics to solar energy conversion and storage. Here, we present an architecture for solar pumped lasers that uses a luminescent solar concentrator to decouple the conventional trade-off between solar absorption efficiency and the mode volume of the optical gain material. ...