Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.109
Publication date: 11th July 2022
Semi-transparent Organic Solar Cells (ST-OSCs) have unparalleled ability to tailor the optical transmission to a targeted application such as their integration into buildings, where color-neutrality is generally favored, and integration into greenhouses, where the transmision might be matched to the light needs of plants. Plants have a complex response to light quality (the spectral distributions) and light quantity (the total intensity) and have often adopted to a particular envionment. For example, lattice is a low light plant that can get severely stressed above 20% of solar radiation, at which point photosynthesis plateaus and excess energy if converted into protective molecules such as anthocyanines or shunted. In contrast, tomatoes are high light intensity plants. We will discuss the status of work by a team at NCSU to energy balances, economics, and the impact of filtered light on plant growth. We find that the heating and colling requirements can be significantly effected by ST-OSCs and that greenhouses with net-zero energy balance can be operated in all but the coldest climates in the US [1]. Additionally, studies on lettucie indicate no negative impact on yield [2]. This energy balance in yield translates into favorouble economics when comparing ST-OSC greenhouses to conventional greenhouses across many different climate classes [3]. Interestingly, the use ST-OSC can also impact genetic expression and alter for example the plant’s nitrogen utilization [4]. All these factors bode well for this application of ST-OSC technology and the use-case is rather stong. Yet, the problems regarding lifetime of the devices and fabrication costs of properly encapsualted and integrated modules have yet to be solved.
[1] “Achieving net zero energy greenhouses by integrating semitransparent organic solar cells”, E Ravishankar, RE Booth, C Saravitz, H Sederoff, HW Ade, BT O’Connor, Joule 4, 490-506 (2020)
[2] “Balancing crop production and energy harvesting in organic solar-powered greenhouses”, E Ravishankar, M Charles, Y Xiong, R Henry, J Swift, J Rech, J Calero, et al. Cell Reports Physical Science 2, 100381 (2021)
[3] “Organic solar powered greenhouse performance optimization and global economic opportunity”, E Ravishankar, RE Booth, JA Hollingsworth, H Ade, H Sederoff, et al. Energy & Environmental Science 15, 1659-1671(2021)
[4] “Beyond energy balance in agrivoltaic food production: Emergent crop traits from color selective solar cells”, M Charles, B Edwards, E Ravishankar, J Calero, R Henry, J Rech, et al, bioRxiv (2022) doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.10.482833
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