A stacked multi-junction solar cell having a first subcell and second subcell, the second subcell having a larger band gap than the first subcell. A third subcell has a larger band gap than the second subcell, and each of the subcells include an emitter and a base. The second subcell has a layer which includes a compound formed at least the elements GaInAsP, and a thickness of the layer is greater than 100 nm, and the layer is formed as part of the emitter and/or as part of the base and/or as part of the space-charge zone situated between the emitter and the base. The third subcell has a layer including a compound formed of at least the elements GaInP, and the thickness of the layer is greater than 100 nm.

A hybrid solar concentrator that utilizes one or more dielectric mirrors to isolate components of the solar spectrum compatible with specific PV band-gaps and to pass longer wavelengths through to a heat receiver, generating both electricity and heat from a single set of dual-axis heliostats.

An integrated thin-film lateral multi-junction solar device and fabrication method are provided. The device includes, for instance, a substrate, and a plurality of stacks extending vertically from the substrate. Each stack may include layers, and be electrically isolated against another stack. Each stack may also include an energy storage device above the substrate, a solar cell above the energy storage device, a transparent medium above the solar cell, and a micro-optic layer of spectrally dispersive and concentrating optical devices above the transparent medium. Furthermore, the device may include a first power converter connected between the energy storage device and a power bus, and a second power converter connected between the solar cell and the power bus. Further, different solar cells of different stacks may have different absorption characteristics.

A solid or liquid fuel to plasma to electricity power source that provides at leas; one of electrical and thermal power comprising (i) at least one reaction cell for the catalysis of atomic hydrogen to form hydrinos, (ii) a chemical feel mixture comprising at least two components chosen from: a source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst; a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; reactants to form the source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst and a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; one or more reactants to initiate the catalysis of atomic hydrogen; and a material to cause the feel to be highly conductive, (iii) a fuel injection system such as a railgun shot injector, (iv) at least one set of electrodes that confine the fuel and an electrical power source that provides repetitive short bursts of low-voltage, high-current electrical energy to initiate rapid kinetics of the hydrino reaction and an energy gain due to forming hydrinos to torn! a brilliant-light emitting plasma, (v) a product recovery system such as at least one of an augmented plasma railgun recovery system and a gravity recovery system (vi) a fuel pelletizer or shot maker comprising a s me Her. a source or hydrogen and a source of H.sub.2O, a dripper and a water bath to form fuel pellets or shot, and an agitator to teed shot into the injector, and (vii) a power converter capable of converting the high-power light output of the cell into electricity such as a concentrated solar power device comprising a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) photoelectric cells or a plurality of photoelectric cells, and a UV window.

An electricity storing solar power generation device 10 includes: solar cells including at least two kinds of solar cells 11, 12 and 13 having mutually different spectral absorption sensitivities; and electricity storing devices 21, 22 and 23 electrically connected to the solar cells. The solar cells are configured such that an n.sup.th (n being an integer of 1 or greater) solar cell spontaneously disperses light by itself by transmitting or reflecting light so as to allow a portion of light incident on the n.sup.th solar cell other than a portion of light absorbed by the n.sup.th solar cell to fall on an n+1.sup.th solar cell having a smaller band gap. Each of the solar cells is electrically connected to one of the electricity storing devices, and electric power generated by the solar cells is stored in the electricity storing devices electrically connected to the two or more solar cells.

The disclosure is directed to a solar module comprising at least one photovoltaic cell arranged in an essentially planar photovoltaic layer. The photovoltaic layer is being arranged between a front face and a back face of the solar module and a camouflaging for angle dependent reduction of the visibility of the at least one photovoltaic cell for a predefined range of viewing angles with respect to the front face.

According to a main objective of the present invention, the three-dimensional arrangement of solar cells is adjusted so as to use sunlight directly coming from the sun mainly for solar power generation while transmitting wavelengths necessary for the growth of plants and reflecting wavelengths unnecessary for or hindering the growth of plants among wavelengths of sunlight passing through the solar cells to use the reflected wavelengths for additional solar power generation. Sunlight reflected by the dichroic optical filter may be used to additionally generate electricity using solar cells provided perpendicular to the dichroic optical filter, thereby maximizing the use efficiency of sunlight.

An electricity generating window includes a first glass pane, a second glass pane, and a photovoltaic device formed on an inner surface of the first glass pane or an inner surface of the second glass pane. The photovoltaic device includes a first transparent electrode layer, a second transparent electrode layer, and one or more active layers configured to transmit visible light and absorb ultraviolet or near-infrared light. In some embodiments, the electricity generating window also includes a spacer configured to separate the first glass pane and the second glass pane by a cavity. In some embodiments, the electricity generating window also includes one or more functional layers, such as an electrochromic layer or a low-E layer for reflecting infrared light.

A method of operating a solar energy plant and a solar plant are disclosed. Thermal energy produced in the plant is used to heat a first volume of water and charge a hot store in the plant. Electricity produced in the plant operates a heat engine or other device, such as a refrigeration unit, to extract heat and consequently cool a second volume of water and charge a cold store. As desired, energy is transferred from the hot store to a heat engine and energy is transferred from the heat engine to the cold store to operate the heat engine to produce power in the plant.

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.