Transparent UV-absorbing solar cells are promising for the applications of powering electrochromic windows that regulate the transmission of visible and near-infrared photons for natural lighting and heating purposes, respectively. Current technologies focus on using organic solar cells for the application due to their narrow excitonic absorption and tunable bandgaps. However, transparent organic solar cells have drawbacks including the stability issue and thickness-induced problems, such as low yield rate and limited power conversion efficiency. Disclosed herein is the co-deposition of two or more materials by thermal evaporation to make visibly transparent inorganic perovskite films. By tuning the halide compositions, the inorganic perovskite films show absorption range in UV and near-UV region, which is well-suited to the application. Its high conductivity and absorbance enable it to be around 400 nm thick for devices, which is critical to improve the yield rate and efficiency. The solar cells based on the inorganic perovskite active layers show higher power conversion efficiency and higher transparency than state-of-art UV absorbing solar cells. The disclosed approach is not limited to the exemplary embodiment employing inorganic perovskite, and can employ, e.g., inorganic, organic and hybrid perovskite.

A power-generating building material, comprising a substrate (1), a power-generating layer (2) and a protective layer (4), wherein the power-generating layer (2) is disposed on the substrate (1), and the protective layer (4) covers the power-generating layer (2). The substrate (1) is glass, metal plate, cement-based board, flexible plastic film, ceramic or tile, and the protective layer (4) has a weighted average transmittance of 0% to 79% in a wavelength range of 300 nm to 1300 nm. A process for preparing the power-generating building material, comprises: 1) cleaning the surface of the substrate; 2) attaching the power-generating layer to the substrate and extracting a positive electrode and a negative electrode; and 3) coating a protective layer on the solar cells.

The present disclosure provides device for generating electric energy. The device comprises a panel for receiving incident light, The panel is at least partially transmissive for visible light and has first and second surfaces and having a peripheral region comprising at least one edge and/or corner. The panel is arranged such that a portion of light incident on the panel is redirected within the panel towards the peripheral region of the panel. The device further comprises a flexible photovoltaic element that has first and second portions separated by a bend. The bend is located adjacent the edge or corner of the panel whereby the first and second portions of the flexible photovoltaic element are disposed with different orientations within the device.

A chalcopyrite compound-based thin film in which an alkali metal is incorporated, and a method of fabricating the same are provided. The chalcopyrite compound-based thin film in which an alkali metal is incorporated may have improved film characteristics such as excellent chalcopyrite crystal characteristics and improved surface characteristics, and may exhibit improved optical characteristics by control of the distribution of constituent elements in the chalcopyrite compound layer. Accordingly, performance of a solar cell including the chalcopyrite compound-based thin film may be improved. The chalcopyrite compound-based thin film may be easily fabricated through a solution process.

The invention relates a full-laser scribing method for a flexible stainless steel substrate solar cell module, comprising: preparing an insulating layer and a molybdenum layer on a stainless steel substrate in sequence; using a laser I to scribe the prepared insulating layer and molybdenum layer to form a first scribed line (P1); preparing the following film layers in sequence on the molybdenum layer in which P1 has been scribed: a CIGS layer, a cadmium sulfide layer and an intrinsic zinc oxide layer; using a laser II to make scribe and thus form a second scribed line (P2), wherein the second scribed line P2 is parallel with the first scribed line P1; and preparing an aluminum-doped zinc oxide layer on the intrinsic zinc oxide layer in which P2 has been scribed, and using a laser III to make scribe and thus form a third scribed line (P3), wherein the third scribed line P3 is parallel with the first scribed line P1. The invention may avoid disadvantages caused by the screen printing, such as large dead zone, expensive screen printing paste and frequent replacement of screens for screen printing, thereby improve efficiency and stability of the module and save cost and increase production efficiency.

A stretchable photovoltaic device, a stretchable photovoltaic module and a carrier for facilitating formation of a stretchable photovoltaic device and/or module are provided. The stretchable photovoltaic device includes a stretchable part, at least one photovoltaic cell and a surface over which that at least one photovoltaic cell is disposed. The stretchable part has a given length that is operable to change in response to a force being applied to the device. The given length may, for example, elongate when the force causes the device to elongate. Alternative and/or additionally, the given length may compress when the force causes the device to compress.

A method for fabricating thin-film optoelectronic devices (100), the method comprising: providing a alkali-nondiffusing substrate (110), forming a back-contact layer (120); forming at least one absorber layer (130) made of an ABC chalcogenide material, adding least one and advantageously at least two different alkali metals, and forming at least one front-contact layer (150) wherein one of said alkali metals comprise Rb and/or Cs and where, following forming said front-contact layer, in the interval of layers (470) from back-contact layer (120), exclusive, to front-contact layer (150), inclusive, the comprised amounts resulting from adding alkali metals are, for Rb and/or Cs, in the range of 500 to 10000 ppm and, for the other alkali metals, typically Na or K, in the range of 5 to 2000 ppm and at most 1/2 and at least 1/2000 of the comprised amount of Rb and/or Cs. The method (200) is advantageous for more environmentally-friendly production of photovoltaic devices on flexible substrates with high photovoltaic conversion efficiency and faster production rate.

A flexible photovoltaic apparatus is provided including a photovoltaic device that includes an array of photovoltaic cells having a first end and a second end. The array extends in a first direction from the first end to the second end. The photovoltaic apparatus further includes a first fabric that includes an insulating fabric, a first conductor disposed in the insulating fabric and connected to the first end of the array, and a second conductor disposed in the insulating fabric and connected to the second end of the array.

An object of the present invention is to provide a gas barrier film which can prevent the damage of an inorganic layer even in a case where the gas barrier film is used in a product which undergoes a step of applying pressure, heat, and the like, a solar cell using the gas barrier film, and a manufacturing method of the gas barrier film. The object is achieved by a gas barrier film having a support and an inorganic layer and a protective organic layer on one surface of the support, in which the protective organic layer has a polymerized substance of a graft copolymer having an acryl polymer as a main chain and having, as a side chain, at least either an acryloyl group-terminated urethane polymer or an acryloyl group-terminated urethane oligomer, a polymerized substance of a (meth)acrylate monomer having three or more functional groups, a polymerized substance of the graft copolymer and the (meth)acrylate monomer having three or more functional groups, a (meth)acrylate polymer, and a silane coupling agent having a (meth)acryloyl group.

A solar power transmission system having a solar-microwave fabric for absorbing sunlight, transforming the sunlight into electrical energy, amplifying a received signal using the electrical energy, and transmitting the amplified signal to a rectenna beacon. Embodiments according to the present invention include a system for space-based solar power transmission having a solar power collection balloon in geostationary orbit around Earth, which allows for continuous, feasible, and efficient collection of solar power in space that can be packaged into a condensed canister for launch and deployed without manual or machine assembly once in orbit.