Title: Dye sensitised solar power generating window: towards environmentally sustainable energy efficiency in ICT

Authors: Zulfiqar Ali Umrani; Mehboob Khatani; Mohammad Aslam Uqaili; Norani Muti Mohamed; Nor Hisham Hamid; Bhawani Shankar Chowdhary

Addresses: Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Main Indus Highway, Jamshoro, Pakistan ' Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Main Indus Highway, Jamshoro, Pakistan; University Technology PETRONAS, Persiaran UTP, 32610 Seri Iskander, Perak, Malaysia ' Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Main Indus Highway, Jamshoro, Pakistan ' University Technology PETRONAS, Persiaran UTP, 32610 Seri Iskander, Perak, Malaysia ' University Technology PETRONAS, Persiaran UTP, 32610 Seri Iskander, Perak, Malaysia ' Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Main Indus Highway, Jamshoro, Pakistan

Abstract: ICT equipment generates significant amount of green house gases. Presently, the ICT produces more than 830 million tons of CO₂, that is about 2% of global CO₂ emissions, and it is expected to double by 2020 (Chan et al., 2012; Pothitou et al., 2017; Park, 2018). There is a need for ICT to standardise, energy consumption and emissions and investigate means to reduce energy consumption. The electricity consumption which dominates direct carbon footprint of the ICT sector can be reduced by using renewable energy sources. The dye-sensitised-solar-cell (DSC) is a renewable energy device that works well inside a built-environment. The transparent characteristic of DSCs makes it suitable for building-integrated-photovoltaic (BIPV) applications such as windows. In this study, we successfully fabricated and assembled a transparent DSC which was used to power ICT products. Such building-integrated DSC systems can potentially power ICT devices in homes and offices.

Keywords: information communication technology; ICT; dye-sensitised solar cells; sustainability; building integrated photovoltaics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2021.113547

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2021 Vol.14 No.2, pp.225 - 232

Received: 10 Mar 2018
Accepted: 11 Jul 2018
Published online: 11 Mar 2021 *

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