Design Article
Imec, Solvay claim record efficiency for OPV modules
Anne-Francoise Pele
9/24/2012 6:11 AM EDT
PARIS – Nanoelectronics research center IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) and chemicals company Solvay SA (Brussels, Belgium) have announced they have developed an organic photovoltaic module with a certified efficiency of 5.5 percent, which they claim is a world record for a module.
Imec said it has developed a dedicated inverted bulk heterojunction architecture for polymer-based solar cells. The architecture is claimed to simultaneously optimize cell light management and increase device quality.
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With this architecture, and a proprietary Polyera semiconductor in the photoactive layer, a team of Imec and Solvay researchers said they developed a process to integrate inverted bulk heterojunction solar cells in an efficient module that uses 95 percent of the aperture area to generate electricity. This resulted in a module-efficiency of 5.5 percent on a 16 cm² aperture area, Imec and Solvay claimed.
Commenting on the results at the module level, Tom Aernouts, R&D group leader of organic photovoltaics at Imec, declared: "They are an important step towards upscaling organic solar cell technology to high-volume production. With further device and module structure optimizations and optimization of the photo-active material of the cell, we will continue increasing efficiency and lifetime, which are essential advancements for developing an industry-relevant technology for organic solar cells."
In Dec. 2011, Imec, Polyera and Solvay claimed they had achieved an efficiency of 8.3 percent for polymer-based single junction organic solar cells in an inverted device stack.
See related links:
Increasing energy yield of PV panels
CZTSe thin-film solar cells results
Anti-aging elixir for solar cells
Photovoltaics market outlook until 2016
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Imec said it has developed a dedicated inverted bulk heterojunction architecture for polymer-based solar cells. The architecture is claimed to simultaneously optimize cell light management and increase device quality.
[Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.]
With this architecture, and a proprietary Polyera semiconductor in the photoactive layer, a team of Imec and Solvay researchers said they developed a process to integrate inverted bulk heterojunction solar cells in an efficient module that uses 95 percent of the aperture area to generate electricity. This resulted in a module-efficiency of 5.5 percent on a 16 cm² aperture area, Imec and Solvay claimed.
Commenting on the results at the module level, Tom Aernouts, R&D group leader of organic photovoltaics at Imec, declared: "They are an important step towards upscaling organic solar cell technology to high-volume production. With further device and module structure optimizations and optimization of the photo-active material of the cell, we will continue increasing efficiency and lifetime, which are essential advancements for developing an industry-relevant technology for organic solar cells."
In Dec. 2011, Imec, Polyera and Solvay claimed they had achieved an efficiency of 8.3 percent for polymer-based single junction organic solar cells in an inverted device stack.
See related links:
Increasing energy yield of PV panels
CZTSe thin-film solar cells results
Anti-aging elixir for solar cells
Photovoltaics market outlook until 2016
------------------------
If you found this article to be of interest, visit SmartEnergy Designline where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of clean technologies. And, to register to our weekly newsletter, click here.
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anne-francoise.pele
9/24/2012 8:11 AM EDT
Imec specified that the 5.5-percent efficiency had been certified by Newport.
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green_is_now
1/23/2013 4:36 PM EST
What is the projected cost reducions ratios when compared to silicoln or sigs?
Also at the module and panel sizes with structure costs include.
It neds to be 1/4 the cost at the panel level tobe cost effective with 20% solar cells
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