A number of new European R&D projects are seeking to take organic solar cells to the higher efficiencies needed to make this scalable technology commercially viable.
Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) represent cost-effective production of solar cells, processing devices by coating and printing techniques on flexible substrates in high-throughput roll-to-roll processes. First-generation OPV modules, beginning to emerge, have low power conversion efficiencies under 5%.
Designing cell structures to achieve higher efficiencies is an ongoing challenge. The European Commission is investing more than €20 million across several collaborative R&D projects to push development of OPVs based on tandem or multi-junction device architectures - stacks of sub-cells configured to absorb more light on the spectrum, to increase the conversion efficiencies of the overall solar cell device.
One of the newly finalised projects, Sunflower - or 'Sustainable Novel Flexible Organic Watts Efficiently Reliable' - will cost over €14 million. Running to 2015, the project will develop printed OPVs with high-efficiency architectures, such as tandem cells and dedicated light management structures, to increase efficiencies to 8-10% at module level.
Cost per watt
Like the recently announced X10D project, the aim of Sunflower is to develop foundations for a process that reduces production costs to under €0.70 per watt peak.
OPV developer Konarka is a partner on the project. Packing higher efficiencies into cells and developing scalable processing techniques for making these more complex structures will enable more cost-effective production of OPVs in the coming years and lead to more competitive technology, as conventional PV technologies reach economies of scale and become cheaper to make.
Agfa is a partner on both X10D and Sunflower, and will develop processes for its conductive polymer material based on PEDOT: PSS as the transparent electrode. In X10D the company will develop its inkjet printable formulation, while other printing techniques will be the focus in Sunflower.
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Sunflower project
The €14 million Sustainable Novel Flexible Organic Watts Efficiently Reliable project will develop organic photovoltaics with efficiencies of 8-10% at module level
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Konarka
Website for the developers of organic solar cells
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Organic solar cells push efficiency thresholds to 8.3%
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