Lenticular Solar Panel Surface for Angle-Selective Image Display
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Solution Overview
Problem
Solar panels, especially those with photovoltaic silicon thin film, face inefficiencies due to fixed orientations, and their dark color hinders aesthetic and architectural integration, necessitating a solution to display images without obstructing solar rays.
Innovation Solution
An optical system comprising a lenticular surface and a transparent film with printed image bands, where the image is only visible at specific viewing angles, allowing direct solar rays to reach the solar panel, utilizing plano-convex or bi-convex lenses to concentrate light and position image and transparent bands to optimize viewing angles and solar ray incidence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a lenticular surface with image bands is added to the solar panel, then aesthetic integration and visual communication are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The solar panel surface is segmented into alternating transparent bands and image bands, where transparent bands allow light transmission to the solar cells and image bands provide visual information. This segmentation enables the panel to simultaneously maintain aesthetic appearance and functional efficiency without requiring complex additional components.
Solution Approach 2:
The lenticular surface serves multiple functions: it acts as a protective cover, creates the optical effect for image display, and maintains structural integrity. By integrating these functions into a single component, the design avoids adding excessive complexity while achieving aesthetic integration and visual communication capabilities.
2Ease of manufacture
If image bands are positioned to be visible at certain viewing angles, then visual appeal is improved, but insolation efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the solar panel surface have different optical properties: transparent bands have high light transmission to maximize energy collection, while image bands have selective visibility characteristics. The lenticular surface creates localized optical effects where images are only visible from certain angles, allowing the panel to maintain high insolation efficiency while providing visual appeal.
Solution Approach 2:
The image bands occupy only a portion of the total panel surface area, with transparent bands making up the remainder. This partial action ensures that sufficient light reaches the solar cells for efficient energy generation, while the image bands provide the desired visual appeal without excessively compromising insolation efficiency.
3Productivity
If transparent bands are made wider to allow more solar rays, then insolation efficiency is improved, but image visibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The optical characteristics of the lenticular surface are carefully controlled to create specific viewing angle ranges. By adjusting the lens parameters and band widths, the system achieves an optimal balance where transparent bands are sufficiently wide to allow adequate solar ray transmission, while image bands maintain sufficient width and optical properties to remain visible within their designated viewing angles.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables minimal insolation loss while facilitating aesthetic and architectural integration by displaying images on solar panels, allowing direct solar rays to reach the active surface, thus improving visual appeal and communication potential.
Implementation Method 1
The linear lenses in fact concentrate the light, therefore the vision, on zones of the focal plane, the position of which depends on the angle of incidence of the light at the surface of the lens.
Implementation Method 2
The light strikes the corrugated face of the lenticular surface with angles of incidence, measured relative to an axis perpendicular to the corrugated surface, which take values of between +45° and −45°.
Data Source
AI summary
An optical system that allows an image to be displayed on the surface of a solar panel without this image forming an obstacle to direct solar rays. The system includes a solar panel, a lenticular surface formed from linear lenses, and a transparent film on which an image, the straight bands of which, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the lenses, have been removed, is printed. At certain viewing angles, an observer can see only the image bands, whereas at other angles of incidence the sun's rays will pass through the transparent bands and reach the active surface of the solar sensor. The system is particularly suitable for, for example, aesthetic and architectural integration of solar panels, and for disseminating visual information on the surface thereof.