Luminescent solar concentrators: Photo-stability analysis and long-term perspectives

Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC) have been extensively analysed from the point of view of design to improve its performance, but there are still open questions about long-term stability at outdoor conditions, which reduce its commercial interest. A study of photo-stability of a LSC is presented in this work. The prototype consists in an organic dye, encapsulated at pilot scale (10 x 10 cm(2)) to reproduce real operating conditions. Outdoor monitoring and indoor aging tests are performed to evaluate what are the critical failures, their cause, and possible mitigation solutions to provide long-term stability to the LSC device. A correlation between encapsulating materials and dye photoluminescence properties is identified, which clarify the photo-degradation mechanism of the LSC. These results provide a better comprehension of the design strategies required to ensure the required operational stability for the industrialization of these devices.