Luminescent solar collector

A photovoltaic array comprising a luminescent member having at least one pair of opposed essentially parallel sides, each of said sides extending over a large area and being joined by a thin edge face, the area of said large area sides being sustantially greater than the area of said edge face, and a plurality of photovoltaic means carried by and interfacing with both sides of said at least one pair of large area sides.

A photovoltaic array comprising a luminescent member having at least one pair of opposed essentially parallel sides, each of said sides extending over a large area and being joined by a thin edge face, the area of said large area sides being substantially greater than the area of said edge face, said luminescent member being thin and film-like and carrying spaced, elongated narrow photovoltaic strips on and interfacing with at least one of said large area sides.

A photovoltaic array comprising a luminescent member having at least one pair of opposed essentially parallel sides, each of said sides extending over a large area and being joined by a thin edge face, the area of said large area sides being substantially greater than the area of said edge face, at least one photovoltaic means carried by and interfacing with at least one of said large area sides, and at least one photovoltaic means embedded in said luminescent member.

A photovoltaic array comprising a luminescent member having at least one pair of opposed essentially parallel sides, each of said sides extending over a large area and being joined by a thin edge face, the area of said large area sides being substantially greater than the area of said edge face, at least one photovoltaic means carried by and interfacing with at least one of said large area sides, and said luminescent member is roughened in said interface.

A photovoltaic array comprising a luminescent member having at least one pair of opposed essentially parallel sides, each of said sides extending over a large area and being joined by a thin edge face, the area of said large area sides being substantially greater than the area of said edge face, at least one photovoltaic means carried by and interfacing with at least one of said large area sides, and there is an antireflective material in said interface.

A luminescent solar collector and concentrator comprising a thin sheet about 0.4 millimeters thick forming a radiation collection medium for receiving incident solar radiation having two parallel confronting smooth faces of extended area which are separated from each other by substantially smaller area edge faces, said medium containing at least one luminescent species capable of emitting luminescent radiation upon excitation with incident solar radiation, said medium being totally internally reflective of a major portion of said emitted luminescent radiation;

• and at least one photovoltaic cell physically bonded to, and optically coupled to, one of said faces in a relatively small part of the extended area thereof.