Transparent solar cell techniques : From a solar irradiance- and environmental perspective

Sammanfattning: The task of this master thesis was to investigate the possibility of using transparent solar panels as windows and how they compare to other solar energy technologies. The idea is then to use the UV and IR light to produce energy while letting the visual light pass through. With this also receiving the advantage of less indoor heating of the building and therefore a decreased need for cooling. To make it into a more concrete example the Sergelhuset building in Stockholm, Sweden was chosen as an example. The investigation was made through a solar irradiation simulation for four different cases and an environmental analysis of the alternatives. The result is that the most common way of mounting polycrystalline modules, is the most cost effective alternative but it might not be so good from an environmental perspective in Sweden because of the already low g CO2eq/kWh and not the best location for solar panels. Façade mounted CIGS perform well in energy production but the high investment costs set it down. However, it is better than polycrystalline panels from an environmental perspective. The semitransparent CdTe window will be hard to make economically viable and from an environmental perspective it is debatable. The transparent alternatives focus its absorption on UV and IR light but there are also semi-transparent alternatives that uses also part of the visible light, which makes it not completely transparent.