organic solar cell tagged posts

The ‘best conversion performance in the world in a dark room’ is how the developers of a new organic PV device have described it. Such cells could be used as a wireless source of energy for IoT applications or in gadgets such as temperature-humidity and motion sensors.

Eight months ago, a state-funded French research institute and Japanese textiles company Toyobo announced they would join forces to develop superior organic solar cells for indoor applications. The partnership, the French organization said at the time, was aimed at developing thin, flexible solar cells which could function where conventional, inorganic solar cells could not.

The new energy technologies and nanomaterials (Liten) division of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and To...

2018 EECS Forrest Organic Solar Cell. Credit: Michigan Engineering

In an advance that makes a more flexible, inexpensive type of solar cell commercially viable, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated organic solar cells that can achieve 15% efficiency. This level of efficiency is in the range of many solar panels, or photovoltaics, currently on the market. “Organic photovoltaics can potentially cut way down on the total solar energy system cost, making solar a truly ubiquitous clean energy source,” said Stephen Forrest, the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and Paul G. Goebel Professor of Engineering, who led the work.

At 15% efficiency and given a 20-year lifetime, researchers estimate organic solar cells could produce electricity at a cost o...