Flexible photovoltaics for light harvesting under LED lighting

The interest in the field of energy harvesting is related to the successful development of effective power sources that can be used indoors for driving electronic devices, such as wireless sensors, in the home or in building or in other applications, such as that of internet of things or domotics. One of the prime candidates is represented by photovoltaic cells, especially in their thin flexible form for more seamless integration. Here we compare the power output of three commercial samples of solar cells measured under artificial light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, namely amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and polymer organic (OPV) flexible photovoltaics, together with dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) developed in our laboratories. The properties of DSCs, together with their customization, enable these to reach remarkable power density outputs under indoor lighting.