Organic Solar Cell
Researchers once advocated that efficiency of organic solar cells would never be able to break the 15% mark. However very recently Chinese researchers at Nankai University have showcased efficiency of 17.3% with organic or natural solar cells. This is a great achievement especially given the fact that efficiency of commercially used inorganic solar cells produced from silicon lies between 15% to 20%. Achieving 17.3% efficiency with organic solar cells would put them one step closer to commercialization claimed the researchers.
Today a large number of specialists and researchers are beginning to trust that the eventual fate of sunlight based vitality lies not in silicon but rather in natural sun powered cells or otherwise called natural photovoltaic (NPV). NPV cells which are produced using carbon on a plastic or any flexible substrate are less expensive to manufacture, are flexible and offer lower cost of installation. On the other hand silicon based solar panels are costly, composed of rigid and thick sheets and require fixed installation points. This makes silicon based solar panels not very cost competitive for producing electricity when compared with other conventional techniques. A picture of organic solar cell is shown below.
Figure 1. Organic Solar Cell (Source: Ref. 3)
The amount of solar energy received by earth land mass is 3000 times the total energy consumption globally every year. The key point is harnessing this energy at low cost and with high efficiency. Researchers have been working on organic solar cells for over 30 years now but it is over the last few years that research has gained momentum in the domain. Another research group at University of Michigan could also achieve efficiency of 15% with the organic solar cells. Both these breakthroughs are published in this year only. Polymers such as conjugated polymers are used for the production of organic solar cells. They are mechanically flexible, low cost and can be stacked to achieve higher efficiency. Use of organic solar cells could make the sun energy a true ubiquitous source of generating power as organic solar cells being flexible can be curved around any structure, built into clothing, made into any color (and even transparent) and can be blend into any environment. However still there is a challenge of increasing the efficiency and lifetime of the organic solar cells which is around 20-25 years as of today.
By: Mr. Neeraj Kumar - Assistant Professor (ECE), Chitkara University, H.P.
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