There is much interest in the possibility of utilizing organic photovoltaics (OPV) in low-cost, high-volume, flexible applications such as building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), awnings and energy harvesting. The ability to print OPVs would further enhance the financial advantages of the technology.

As it is a relatively new technology, OPV has much work to do to meet the efficiencies and lifetimes of other thin film PV technologies, notably cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS). However, by using organic compounds, OPV manufacturers are able to avoid utilizing materials that are either scarce or have environmental issues. The key is advancing the technology.

There are advances being made on the OPV side that are drawing more attention to the field. In particular, Konarka Technologies and Eight19 have made recent inroads in OPV.

In November 2010, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) certified that Power Plastic, Konarka’s OPV solar cells, demonstrated 8.3% efficiency, a record. In June 2011,Konarkaannounced the largest OPV installation of its kind and the first OPV semi-transparent BIPV curtain wall. These semi-transparent solar panels were installed in the company’s New Bedford, MA headquarters.

Unlike most solar panels, which are placed on rooftops, BIPV systems can be used on walls due to their light weight and flexibility. This installation will ultimately serve to showcase the effectiveness and lifetime of Power Plastic.

With backing from the Carbon Trust and Rhodia, Eight19 was formed in September 2010, and is beginning to ramp up its efforts to utilize roll-to-roll processing to develop OPV products.

Both Eight19 and Konarka are working closely with universities that are developing new approaches to OPV. Eight19, which was spun out of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, recently announced an intellectual property agreement with Cambridge Enterprise, the University of Cambridge’s commercialization group. Eight19 licensed core IP from Cambridge and acquires the right for a defined period to exclusively license patents created by key researchers at the university.

Meanwhile, in January 2011, Konarka announced a partnership with researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. This collaboration will allow the partners to better align their scientific goals with critical needs in the plastic solar cell industry. Konarka looks to gain insights into the physical potential of plastic solar cell efficiencies and an understanding of critical processes in specific solar cell systems.

There are still gains that need to be made before OPV is commercially successful. For example, DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) is collaborating with Holst Centre, an independent open-innovation R&D center set up by imec and TNO, that includes work on printing OPVs. In another example, NREL and Solarmer Energy are collaborating on an R&D deal to improve plastic solar cells’ lifetimes. Universities worldwide are working on OPVs.

All in all, the research being done by Konarka, Eight19 and the other companies in the field is certainly promising.