fantastic plastic

A team of researchers at MIT, headed by Marc Baldo, have developed solar concentrators based on coatings of organic dyes on glass or plastic substrates. Sunlight absorbed by the dye molecules is re-emitted at different wavelengths and waveguided to the photovoltaic cells at the edge of the glass substrate. From the press release:

The dye-based organic solar concentrator functions without the use of tracking or cooling systems, greatly reducing the overall cost compared to other concentrator technologies. […] Some light passes through the concentrator and can be absorbed by lower voltage solar cells underneath. Alternatively, the partially transmissive concentrator can function as a window.

In the published work (Science) the dye layers were deposited from the vapor phase, but solution processing is in principle also possible.
Apparently very similar luminescent solar concentrators were first developed in the 1970’s, but suffered from absorption of the light before it reached the edges, as well as poor stability of the dyes.
While the stability of the current devices is also not good enough yet for products, the inventors believe the technology could be commercialized within three years.
Covalent Solar, a company being spun out of MIT by three of its inventors (Michael Currie, Jon Mapel, and Shalom Goffri) is working on achieving this goal.