Konarka Technologies, Inc. recently announced that the National Energy Renewable Laboratory (NREL) has certified that its organic based photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells have demonstrated a record breaking 8.3% conversion efficiency.
The latest certification results are for Konarka’s large area single-junction solar cell with a surface area of 1 square centimeter.
Howard Berke, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Konarka said the NREL certification opens new doors for the commercial production of cost-effective, efficient electricity for numerous large scale applications
Konarka’s “Power Plastic” organic solar cells can be printed or coated onto flexible substrates using roll-to-roll manufacturing, similar to the way newspaper is printed on large rolls of paper. The resulting Power Plastic cells can then be manufactured into a wide range of end-use products. Konarka says its “tunable” cell chemistry can absorb specific wavelengths of light – as well as broad spectrum. This means the material can convert light to power whether source light is from the sun or a light bulb; enabling it to work both indoors and outdoors.
Konarka claims Power Plastic is the only thin-film photovoltaic technology that uses all recyclable materials.
Even with this breakthrough, organic solar cells have still some way to go to catch up with their rigid, silicon based counterparts. For example, REC solar panels, a popular choice for home solar power installations in Australia, have a 14.2% module conversion efficiency, Suntech Pluto solar modules offer 15.7%, Sanyo HIT solar panels 16.7 %; with an even higher cell efficiency for each.
