Luminescent solar
concentrators (LSCs) are a promising technology
to help integrate solar cells into the built environment, as they
are colorful, semitransparent, and can collect diffuse light. While
LSCs have traditionally been cuboidal, in recent years, a variety
of unconventional geometries have arisen, for example, circular, curved,
polygonal, wedged, and leaf-shaped designs. These new designs can
help reduce optical losses, facilitate incorporation into the built
environment, or unlock new applications. However, as fabrication of
complex geometries can be time- and resource-intensive, the ability
to simulate the expected LSC performance prior to production would
be highly advantageous. While a variety of software exists to model
LSCs, it either cannot be applied to unconventional geometries, is
not open-source, or is not tractable for most users. Therefore, here
we introduce a significant upgrade of the widely used Monte Carlo
ray-trace software pvtrace to include: (i) the capability to characterize
unconventional geometries and improved relevance to standard measurement
configurations; (ii) increased computational efficiency; and (iii)
a graphical user interface (GUI) for ease-of-use. We first test these
new features against data from the literature as well as experimental
results from in-house fabricated LSCs, with agreement within 1% obtained
for the simulated versus measured external photon efficiency. We then
demonstrate the broad applicability of pvtrace by simulating 20 different
unconventional geometries, including a variety of different shapes
and manufacturing techniques. We show that pvtrace can be used to
predict the optical efficiency of 3D-printed devices. The more versatile
and accessible computational workflow afforded by our new features,
coupled with 3D-printed prototypes, will enable rapid screening of
more intricate LSC architectures, while reducing experimental waste.
Our goal is that this accelerates sustainability-driven design in
the LSC field, leading to higher optical efficiency or increased utility.