IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v94y2018icp779-791.html

A review of transparent solar photovoltaic technologies

Author

Listed:
  • Husain, Alaa A.F.
  • Hasan, Wan Zuha W.
  • Shafie, Suhaidi
  • Hamidon, Mohd N.
  • Pandey, Shyam Sudhir

Abstract

Energy is essential for economic development and growth. With the rapid growth of development and the drive to expand the economy, society demands more electricity. Coupled with the realisation that unsustainable energy production can have a detrimental effect on our environment. Solar energy is the most prolific method of energy capture in nature. The economic drive to make solar cells more cost effective and efficient has driven developments in many different deposition technologies, including dipping, plating, thick film deposition and thin film deposition. Typically, in order for solar energy to work efficiently and supply energy to a building, a very large amount of space is required, in the form of rooftops or land, in order to install solar panels; these solar panel space requirements are a large impediment to practical usage. This drawback drove researchers to come up with transparent solar cells (TSCs), which solves the problem by turning any sheet of glass into a photovoltaic solar cell. These cells provide power by absorbing and utilising unwanted light energy through windows in buildings and automobiles, which leads to an efficient use of architectural space. There are approximately nine transparent photovoltaic (TPV) technologies under development, and studies regarding these technologies aim to achieve high transparency along with electrical performance that is compatible with solar panels that are sold in the market. The main objective of this review paper is to state all the latest reported technologies from the year 2007 onwards on transparent photovoltaic technologies with at least 20% average transmission. This includes demonstrating the process used in each technology (including the materials and the methods) and explaining its advantages and disadvantages from a performance, aesthetic and financial perspective. Therefore, this study provides a crucial review on the latest developments in the field of TSCs.

Suggested Citation

  • Husain, Alaa A.F. & Hasan, Wan Zuha W. & Shafie, Suhaidi & Hamidon, Mohd N. & Pandey, Shyam Sudhir, 2018. "A review of transparent solar photovoltaic technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 779-791.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:94:y:2018:i:c:p:779-791
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118304672
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.031?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rehman, Shafiqur & Bader, Maher A. & Al-Moallem, Said A., 2007. "Cost of solar energy generated using PV panels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(8), pages 1843-1857, October.
    2. Fan, Ke & Liu, Min & Peng, Tianyou & Ma, Liang & Dai, Ke, 2010. "Effects of paste components on the properties of screen-printed porous TiO2 film for dye-sensitized solar cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 555-561.
    3. Hosenuzzaman, M. & Rahim, N.A. & Selvaraj, J. & Hasanuzzaman, M. & Malek, A.B.M.A. & Nahar, A., 2015. "Global prospects, progress, policies, and environmental impact of solar photovoltaic power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 284-297.
    4. Fthenakis, Vasilis, 2009. "Sustainability of photovoltaics: The case for thin-film solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2746-2750, December.
    5. Eichler, Stefan & Littke, Helge C.N. & Tonzer, Lena, 2017. "Central bank transparency and cross-border banking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-30.
    6. Mingzhen Liu & Michael B. Johnston & Henry J. Snaith, 2013. "Efficient planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by vapour deposition," Nature, Nature, vol. 501(7467), pages 395-398, September.
    7. Parisi, Maria Laura & Maranghi, Simone & Basosi, Riccardo, 2014. "The evolution of the dye sensitized solar cells from Grätzel prototype to up-scaled solar applications: A life cycle assessment approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 124-138.
    8. Da, Yun & Xuan, Yimin & Li, Qiang, 2016. "From light trapping to solar energy utilization: A novel photovoltaic–thermoelectric hybrid system to fully utilize solar spectrum," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 200-210.
    9. Parida, Bhubaneswari & Iniyan, S. & Goic, Ranko, 2011. "A review of solar photovoltaic technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 1625-1636, April.
    10. Gong, Jiawei & Sumathy, K. & Qiao, Qiquan & Zhou, Zhengping, 2017. "Review on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs): Advanced techniques and research trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 234-246.
    11. Tyagi, V.V. & Rahim, Nurul A.A. & Rahim, N.A. & Selvaraj, Jeyraj A./L., 2013. "Progress in solar PV technology: Research and achievement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 443-461.
    12. Rahman, Mohammad Ziaur, 2014. "Advances in surface passivation and emitter optimization techniques of c-Si solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 734-742.
    13. Gong, Jiawei & Liang, Jing & Sumathy, K., 2012. "Review on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs): Fundamental concepts and novel materials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 5848-5860.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xing, Yupeng & Han, Peide & Wang, Shuai & Liang, Peng & Lou, Shishu & Zhang, Yuanbo & Hu, Shaoxu & Zhu, Huishi & Zhao, Chunhua & Mi, Yanhong, 2015. "A review of concentrator silicon solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1697-1708.
    2. Maddah, Hisham A. & Berry, Vikas & Behura, Sanjay K., 2020. "Biomolecular photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells: Recent developments and critical insights," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    3. Sampaio, Priscila Gonçalves Vasconcelos & González, Mario Orestes Aguirre, 2017. "Photovoltaic solar energy: Conceptual framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 590-601.
    4. Gao, Yuan-Zheng & Liu, Xun & Wang, Jie-Sheng & Guan, Xin-Yi & Zhang, Song-Bo & Lu, Jun-Yu, 2025. "Solar photovoltaic SDM parameter estimation with improved sailfish optimizer based on random walking and multiple mutation strategies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    5. Arkan, Foroogh & Izadyar, Mohammad, 2018. "Recent theoretical progress in the organic/metal-organic sensitizers as the free dyes, dye/TiO2 and dye/electrolyte systems; Structural modifications and solvent effects on their performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 609-655.
    6. Kannan, Nadarajah & Vakeesan, Divagar, 2016. "Solar energy for future world: - A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1092-1105.
    7. Rahman, Syed Masiur & Khondaker, A.N., 2012. "Mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon capture and storage in Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2446-2460.
    8. Rashwan, Sherif S. & Shaaban, Ahmed M. & Al-Suliman, Fahad, 2017. "A comparative study of a small-scale solar PV power plant in Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 313-318.
    9. Moh’d Al-Nimr & Abdallah Milhem & Basel Al-Bishawi & Khaleel Al Khasawneh, 2020. "Integrating Transparent and Conventional Solar Cells TSC/SC," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-22, September.
    10. Ludin, Norasikin Ahmad & Mustafa, Nur Ifthitah & Hanafiah, Marlia M. & Ibrahim, Mohd Adib & Asri Mat Teridi, Mohd & Sepeai, Suhaila & Zaharim, Azami & Sopian, Kamaruzzaman, 2018. "Prospects of life cycle assessment of renewable energy from solar photovoltaic technologies: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 11-28.
    11. Thopil, George Alex & Sachse, Christiaan Eddie & Lalk, Jörg & Thopil, Miriam Sara, 2020. "Techno-economic performance comparison of crystalline and thin film PV panels under varying meteorological conditions: A high solar resource southern hemisphere case," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    12. Shrivastava, Manish & Singh, Ashok Kumar & Gautam, Desh Deepak, 2025. "Critical observation on partially shaded PV modules and effects on sustainable applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    13. Fabian Schoden & Marius Dotter & Dörthe Knefelkamp & Tomasz Blachowicz & Eva Schwenzfeier Hellkamp, 2021. "Review of State of the Art Recycling Methods in the Context of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-12, June.
    14. Kane, Aarti & Verma, Vishal & Singh, Bhim, 2017. "Optimization of thermoelectric cooling technology for an active cooling of photovoltaic panel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1295-1305.
    15. Wali, Qamar & Elumalai, Naveen Kumar & Iqbal, Yaseen & Uddin, Ashraf & Jose, Rajan, 2018. "Tandem perovskite solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 89-110.
    16. Leena Grandell & Mikael Höök, 2015. "Assessing Rare Metal Availability Challenges for Solar Energy Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-20, August.
    17. Fang, Hong & Wang, Xu & Song, Wenyan, 2020. "Technology selection for photovoltaic cell from sustainability perspective: An integrated approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1029-1041.
    18. Alessandro Cannavale & Francesco Martellotta & Francesco Fiorito & Ubaldo Ayr, 2020. "The Challenge for Building Integration of Highly Transparent Photovoltaics and Photoelectrochromic Devices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-24, April.
    19. Kumar, Manish & Kumar, Arun, 2017. "Performance assessment and degradation analysis of solar photovoltaic technologies: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 554-587.
    20. Devadiga, Dheeraj & Selvakumar, Muthu & Shetty, Prakasha & Santosh, Mysore Sridhar, 2022. "The integration of flexible dye-sensitized solar cells and storage devices towards wearable self-charging power systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:94:y:2018:i:c:p:779-791. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.