Elsevier

Procedia Engineering

Volume 145, 2016, Pages 699-706
Procedia Engineering

Avoiding Snow and Ice Formation on Exterior Solar Cell Surfaces – A Review of Research Pathways and Opportunities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.084Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Today energy-efficient and energy-harvesting buildings experience an ever-increasing interest and demand. Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) may in this respect represent a powerful and versatile tool for reaching the goal of zero energy and zero emission buildings. The BIPV systems replace the outer building envelope skin, thus serving simultanously as both a climate screen and a power source generating electricity. However, snow and ice formation on the exterior solar cell surfaces reduce their performance and may also lead to faster deterioration. Hence, if one could find a way to develop solar cells which were able to avoid snow and ice formation on their surfaces, one would have moved a large step ahead. This work presents a review exploring miscellaneous pathways for avoiding snow and ice formation on solar cell surfaces including superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces.

Keywords

Snow
Ice
Solar cell
Building integrated photovoltaics
BIPV
Surface
Review
Research pathway
Superhydrophobic
Icephobic.

Cited by (0)

Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ICSDEC 2016.