Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells integrated into consumer electronics products and recharging accessories are an interesting proof of concept, but ultimately not a viable market. OPVs will need to move to rooftop applications to be commercially competitive.
That is the view of OPV coating developer Thomas Kolbusch, MD of Solarcoating Machinery. The company is working with developers such as Cetemmsa and Technical University Denmark on trials of longer-term OPV installations.
And the company is planning to unveil its own demonstrator OPV later this year.
Kolbusch remarks: 'We have our own development for an outdoor demonstrator that we will be revealing in mid-November.'
Low demand
While companies such as G24 Innovations and Konarka have been providing OPVs for integration into bags and carry cases for electronic items - offering a convenient recharge feature for laptops, cameras and mobile phones - Kolbusch suggests that demand from such markets will not be enough for OPV developers, particularly as the standards are so difficult to achieve.
He says: 'For these sorts of applications there is simply not enough capacity - they are mostly a combination of OPV and batteries and, particularly for consumer electronics, they are simply not allowed to fail.
'Developers have made approaches to mobile phone companies and a lot have been refused, because the cells are not reliable enough or do not work properly to satisfy consumer needs.'
Lifetimes
Solarcoating Machinery works on coating technologies to prolong the lifetimes of solar cells. OPVs currently struggle to compete with inorganic cells such as silicon, both on efficiency and lifetimes.
Making cells that can be applied to rooftops will open up applications where expensive and heavy silicon cells cannot be used.
Kolbusch explains: 'The biggest market is going to be building-integrated PV - placing large rolls of OPVs on warehouse rooftops would be a huge market.
'In the US, for example, there is a lot of wooden roofing, and you can't put silicon cells on top of these, so architects using OPVs would provide added value to their customers.