Belgian research centre imec has announced the development of its new organic PV cell. Developed in conjunction with Pennsylvanian technology company Plextronics and Belgian chemical company Solvay, the polymer-based single junction cell achieves an efficiency of up to 6.9%. A module using the same polymer achieved an efficiency of 5% across an area of 25cm2.
On display this week at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC), the organic solar cell utilises an innovative inverted architecture developed by imec, which reported that this inverted architecture offers an increase in performance of more than 0.5% over the architecture typically used in organic cells.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
Or continue reading this article for free
According to the research centre, the recorded efficiency of 6.9% was the highest that had been obtained for cells based on Plextronic’s polymer, and to its knowledge the highest obtained for cells using an inverted architecture.
Tom Aernouts, R&D team leader for Organic Photovoltaics at imec: “We are delighted to present these excellent results, achieved by combining imec’s expertise and knowhow in organic photovoltaics R&D with Plextronics’ innovative material. With further optimizations to the material as well as to the architecture, for example by introducing a multi-junction featuring different layers of different polymers each capturing another part of the light spectrum, we envision organic solar cell lifetimes of over 10 years and conversion efficiencies of 10% in two to three years, ultimately aiming at industry-relevant solutions.”
imec is currently exhibiting at the 26th EU PVSEC in Hamburg, Germany, and can be found at booth B4G/C11.
