Research Projects

Plasmonic Enhancement and Directionality of Emission for Advanced Luminescent Solar Devices (PEDAL)

PEDAL is funded by European Research Council (Project Number 639760). It proposed a disruptive PV technology where record increases in efficiency are achieved and costs reduced. PEDAL will concentrate both direct and diffuse solar radiation in a static building component delivering not only breakthroughs in solar device efficiencies but also the development of unique building integrated components. This will be developed through 3 themes: (1) Plasmonic Enhancement of LSC (PLSC); (2) Plasmonic Enhancement of LDS layers (PLDS); and (3) Upscaled building integrated solar devices (PLSC & PLDS).

The objectives of PEDAL are:

To engineer composites structures (luminescent species and MNPs in polymer) for PLSC and PLDS.
To achieve record efficiency in LSC and LDS by exploiting plasmonic coupling phenomena between metal nanoparticles and luminescent species to enhance emission and alignment of MNP for directional emission.
To develop the first static building integrated PLSC component capable of achieving a concentration factor of 3 or more in diffuse solar radiation.
To develop the first static building integrated PLDS layer on a commercial PV module capable of achieving an increase in PV efficiency.
To investigate balance of system components such as microinverters to enable control and management of PV energy generation through the buildings demand side management systems.