SOLAR POWER HARVESTING BUILDING ENVELOPE

• Main Authors: Hughes, Michael, Borca-Tasciuc, Diana-Andra, Kaminski, Deborah A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 22.09.2022
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; BLASTING; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; FUNCTIONAL FEATURES OR DETAILS OF LIGHTING DEVICES OR SYSTEMSTHEREOF; GENERATION; GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRA-REDRADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, E.G. USINGPHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES; HEATING; LIGHTING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS OF LIGHTING DEVICES WITH OTHERARTICLES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; WEAPONS

A system for providing a solar harvesting building envelope is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of solar harvesting apparatus configured to be installed as or on a building envelope in a manner like that of traditional shingles or siding. The apparatus includes a frame having a photovoltaic end wall, and reflective base and side walls. A translucent, wedge-shaped body layer is positioned on the frame. A luminescent species film is positioned at and substantially parallel to a base of the wedge-shaped body layer, such that the luminescent species film is positioned at an angle relative to the photovoltaic end wall. Light incident on the wedge-shaped body layer is concentrated towards the photovoltaic end wall, such as through absorption and re-emission along with scattering by the luminescent species film and internal reflection by the wedge-shaped body layer and the reflective base and side walls of the frame. A plurality of apparatus may be wired together to create the building envelope, which has the added advantage of substantially eliminating shading losses of traditional solar harvesting systems.