A powered device of a power-over-fiber system includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements that convert feed light into electric power. The powered device further includes a beam splitter that receives the feed light, splits the feed light by wavelength into a plurality of feed light in a plurality of wavelength bands, and outputs the plurality of feed light in the plurality of wavelength bands to the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements in a distributed manner. Each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements has a conversion wavelength range corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of feed light input and is configured to convert the respective one of the plurality of feed light input into electric power.

A plate-shaped component includes a transparent cover plate and a planar back element attached to the cover plate. The cover plate has a front surface facing the external environment and a back surface facing the back element. At least one surface selected from the front and back surfaces has at least one structured region, and at least one color filter layer for reflecting light within a predetermined wavelength range is arranged on the at least one surface selected from the front and back surfaces. The at least one structural region is perpendicular to the plane of the cover plate. The at least one color filter layer includes at least one refractive layer having a refractive index of greater than 2.5 in the wavelength range from 400 nm to at least 700 nm and an extinction coefficient of at least 0.2 below 450 nm and less than 0.2 above 700 nm.

A solar module assembly includes a frame having an upper portion encompassing an area and a mid portion disposed below the upper portion. A plurality of solar panels is arranged in a string, sandwiched between two transparent panes forming a single string panel. The solar panels occupy less than the area of the upper portion. Each of the plurality of solar panels has a pair of opposing edges. A reflector is mounted on the mid portion to reflect light selectively.

A multijunction solar cell comprising a first solar subcell having a first band gap; a second solar subcell disposed adjacent to said first solar subcell and including an emitter layer, and a base layer having a second band gap less than the first band gap, and being lattice mismatched with the upper first solar subcell, and an intermediate layer directly adjacent to and disposed between first and the second solar subcells and compositionally graded to lattice match the first solar subcell on one side and the second solar subcell on the other side, and arranged so that light can enter and pass through the first solar subcell and at least a portion of which can be reflected back into the first solar subcell by the intermediate layer, and is composed of a plurality of layers of materials with discontinuities in their respective indices of refraction.

According to one embodiment, a photovoltaic cell device includes an optical waveguide, an optical element, and a photovoltaic cell. The optical element includes a first liquid crystal layer which contains a cholesteric liquid crystal, reflects, of visible light, circularly polarized light of one of first circularly polarized light and second circularly polarized light rotating in an opposite direction of the first circularly polarized light toward the optical waveguide and the photovoltaic cell, and transmits the other circularly polarized light. The first liquid crystal layer reflects one of the first circularly polarized light and the second circularly polarized light of part of wavelength ranges.

An inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell, a second solar subcell and a third solar subcell. The upper first solar subcell has a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam. The second solar subcell is disposed below and adjacent to, and is lattice matched with, the upper first solar subcell, and has a second band gap smaller than the first band gap. The third solar subcell is disposed below the second solar subcell, and is composed of a GaAs base and emitter layer so as to optimize the efficiency of the solar cell after exposure to radiation. In some implementations, at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout its thickness.

A multijunction solar cell in accordance with an example implementation includes a growth substrate; a first solar subcell disposed over or in the growth substrate; a tunnel diode disposed over the first solar subcell; and a grading interlayer directly disposed over the tunnel diode; a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell disposed over the grading interlayer comprising a plurality of solar subcells. The multijunction solar cell also includes a first wafer bowing inhibition layer disposed directly over an uppermost sublayer of the grading interlayer, such bowing inhibition layer having an in-plane lattice constant greater than the in-plane lattice constant of the uppermost sublayer of the grading interlayer. A second wafer bowing inhibition layer is disposed directly over the first wafer bowing inhibition layer.

An energy harvesting system is provided. The energy harvesting system includes a waveguide, a luminophore embedded in the waveguide, and a solar photovoltaic array or a solar photovoltaic cell coupled to the waveguide. The energy harvesting system is visibly transparent, having an average visible transmittance of greater than about 50% and a color rendering index of greater than about 80 at normal incidence to the waveguide.

According to at least one exemplary embodiment a heliostat driven reactor may be provided. The heliostat driven reactor may include one or more photonic collectors that collect photonic energy and disperses photonic energy, one or more mirrors which concentrate the photonic energy dispersed by the one or more photonic collectors, one or more gain mediums which receive, on one or more absorption faces, the photonic energy dispersed by the photonic energy collector and the photonic energy concentrated by the one or more mirrors, and/or a photoelectric material which receives photonic energy from the one or more gain mediums and converts the photonic energy into electrical energy.

A new type of PV cell is comprised of a purposefully unique spatial configuration of multiple pairs of transparent thin PV films stacked top down in order of decreasing bandgaps corresponding to increasing wavelengths. Each thin-film pair is made of a material of desirable bandgap, and consecutive films separated from each other in space by a layer of air to force confinement of light waves of wavelength matching bandgap, enabling an infinite number of reflections until the wave energy corresponding to each desired wavelength is absorbed. The PV thin-films are coated to ensure that light of each wavelength is confined as intended. They are passivated to minimize surface recombination. This spatial arrangement provides multiple opportunities for photovoltaic conversion of each intended wavelength hence increasing overall conversion efficiency.