The Future Of Organic Photovoltaics
By Dr. Harry Zervos, IDTechEx
Cambridge, UK - In March 2008 Konarka revealed in Advanced Materials (Volume 19, Issue 22) details on using inkjet printing technology to deposit organic materials used in its thin-film solar cells. Konarka used FUJIFILM Dimatix Technology's cartridge-based Dimatix Materials Printer (DMP). According to the organisations, it was the first time such technology was used to produce solar cells. The demonstration validated, according to Konarka, the use of printing techniques for the manufacture of organic photovoltaics, which also lend themselves to being fabricated using a number of low-cost substrates. This essential breakthrough in the field of printed solar cells positions Konarka as an emerging leader in printed photovoltaics.
Organic solar cell efficiencies have been slowly creeping up, with tandem cells (two multilayered parts that work together to gather a wider range of the spectrum of solar radiation – at both shorter and longer wavelengths) created by Alan Heeger's research group that can reach efficiencies of 6.5%.
Other companies, such as Plextronics are also achieving higher efficiencies; Plexcore PV, one of the company's organic ink systems enables production of solar cells with an efficiency of 5%.
Organic photovoltaics (and organic electronics in general) are receiving a lot of attention in many of the world's leading research institutes as well. Arizona State University, MIT, Cambridge University, Tokyo University and University of California Berkeley to name a few, are pioneering ground-breaking work in the field that lead to much quicker advances and achievements.
The combination of such technological breakthroughs that render organic solar cells more efficient, together with the ability to use printing techniques for their fabrication, which ensure low cost manufacturing, is promising a bright future for organic photovoltaic technologies.
The achievement of efficiencies of around 10% does not look like a distant goal anymore and that means that commercialization of the technology is not distant either. The versatility of organic systems, together with their low cost and ease of manufacture will lead to the quick adoption of the technology for diverse applications once the efficiency is stabilized at a level that is commercially viable.
"Flexible", "foldable", "stretchable", "rollable" photovoltaics will be pervasive and applicable in many different sectors and with size not being hindered by cost, in the next few years we might witness their use everywhere around us.
IDTechEx is predicting that inorganic photovoltaics will remain dominant in their market share for a while still but once organic photovoltaics are commercially manufactured, they are going to "demand" their rightful place, ant their rightful share, of the market, and that share is going to be a big one…
For more information and in-depth presentations on current advances in organic photovoltaic technologies from companies such as Plextronics and Global Photonic Energy Corporation and research institutes like MIT and Arizona State University, attend Photovoltaics Beyond Conventional Silicon, on June 17-18, 2008 in Denver, Colorado www.IDTechEx.com/pvUSA. Together with keynote presentations from Spectrolab-Boeing and NASA among others, the conference agenda promises to give an overall view of state-of-the-art photovoltaics technologies and applications.
SOURCE: IDTechEx, Inc.