All About Organic Solar Cells

Do you have a solar panel to generate electricity at your home? Or are you a big fan of that solar-powered calculator? Either way, you have to thank the solar industry for blessing us all with its miracles! More so, for the renewable energy it provides!

As technology progresses, how could the photovoltaic effect-based solar cells be behind?

And with that thought came the Organic cells. This article will run you through all the essential information regarding these new solar cells and what you must know if you plan to use them.

Key Takeaways

Organic solar cells, or organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), are a third-generation solar cell technology that can efficiently harness solar energy and have advantages such as lightweight, large area coverage, low-cost manufacturing, and flexibility.

OPVs have the potential to revolutionize the solar industry by offering affordable and accessible solar technology, although they are still in the developmental stage.

While OPVs have high efficiency, they face challenges such as a shorter operational lifetime compared to traditional crystalline silicon solar cells, and research is ongoing to improve their performance and durability.

What Is an Organic Solar Cell?

An organic solar cell or Photovoltaic cell is the third generation of popular solar cell technology. They are pretty solid solar energy absorbent and can harness huge amounts of sunlight compared to other solar cells.

Organic photovoltaics or plastic solar cells are the future of solar technology, and with their wonderful qualities, you can use solar power almost anywhere!

These organic or plastic solar cells are polymer solar cells that utilize organic material electronics to function. Organic electronics is a stream of electronics responsible for the conductive organic polymers or the tiny organic molecules. These molecules are responsible for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity using sunlight.

These cells convert solar energy into electrical energy way more efficiently than previous cells, like silicon solar cells in common solar panels.

What Is the Structure of An Organic Cell?

Organic cells are high-voltage cells with a similar structure to crystalline silicon-based solar cells. The main difference between these two cells is the presence of a conducting layer. Rather than the crystalline silicon, organic cells would have carbon-based compounds like small organic molecules, which are printed through a very thin layer in the plastic backing.

Advantages of Organic Photovoltaic Cells

A polymer solar cell has many benefits that make it the catch! They are very lightweight, have a big area coverage, and have low-cost manufacturing. The OPVs are very thin filmed solar cells that store huge amounts of energy. This Organic solar cell technology is leading the research and development phase of the solar industry, and much more is waiting to unfold!

An organic photovoltaic cell has flexible solar modules and can be conveniently fabricated with roll-to-roll production. This process is very cost-efficient compared to conventional solar cell manufacturing methods.

Moreover, this new solar technology produces portable electronic devices that can be easily recharged on the go even in low lighting and partial shading hit solar panels.

The organic cell generates a very high voltage to recharge a lithium-ion battery straight up. You would not even need to connect multiple individual cells in a series.

Unlike silicon solar cells, these organic cells work extremely well in varied light conditions, especially in those locations where the sunlight is pretty low. This quality particularly makes it a win for consumer electronic devices.

Although these solar cells are only in the test phase, the promising results of this solar power product will surely bring them to the market.

Top Benefits of Plastic Solar Cells

• Low weight and high flexibility of their PV modules
• The OPV consists of a semi-transparent characteristic
• It is convenient to integrate these solar cells into products and solar panels
• Due to the design features like flexible solar modules, these solar cells are creating new market opportunities
• The manufacturing cost is very low when compared to previous solar cells
• These cells can be created in a continuous process with the help of printing tools
• OPV cells have very few harmful impacts on the environment. They also have a short energy payback time!

Disadvantages of Organic Solar Cell

If you want the organic solar cell to perform better than the silicon-based solar cells, the donor and acceptor materials in the cell must have decent extinction coefficients.

This means the array of measures responsible for the light absorption in a certain medium. Moreover, the OPV should also have a good film structure and high stability.

Even though organic photovoltaics are more efficient than silicon solar cells, the operational lifetime is not pretty long.

The OPV cells are still in the developmental stage. So, processing methods, various new materials, and device architectures need to be checked and monitored if the shelf life has to be improved!

Price of Organic Cells

Many households and businesses around the world are widely using solar cells.

The fact that the technology is relatively new is the reason behind the high price of solar cells. The main raw material in these solar cells is crystalline silicon. This element provides an efficiency of about 10 per cent in solar panels.

When you include the installation cost, support for the solar panels, DC to AC converters, and wiring, the solar cell price reaches a high value. Along with these facts, the ideal life of a solar panel is 30 years, so you should also add the cost of a new installation to the mix.

Organic cells are the next evolutionary step in terms of making solar technology affordable and accessible to a larger quantity of people. Although the organic solar cell technology is new, the cost of manufacturing will range from 30 euros to 90 euros per square meter.

Recent Organic Cells News

Organic power has been traditionally less tolerant to environmental factors such as moisture, sunlight, and oxygen exposure, which seriously negatively affect these organic cells.

Especially when comparing them to the traditional crystalline cells.

As a ray of light, engineers have created a solution to the degradation issues faced by organic cells.

They worked on removing a molecule named Phenyl-C 61-butyric acid methyl ester, or the PCBM, from the highest layer of organic cells. Due to this change, water and oxygen cannot harm the organic cells as much.

With these breakthroughs, the organic cells will experience new advancements in their new and real products. Along with these technical improvements, continuous testing and implementation will help organic photovoltaic technology improve over traditional crystalline technology.

Three main universities, the University of Florida, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University, are conducting rigorous research with a special focus on elevating these solar cells’ lifetime and organic power conversion efficiencies.

According to recent research by the Department of Energy, solar cells have efficiencies that go well beyond 10 per cent. Many other researchers have found this number even higher in controlled situations.

Most highly efficient crystalline silicon solar panels have efficiencies greater than 22 per cent. Isn’t that amazing?

But OPVs still have a lot of work to do before they can properly compete and win over silicon cells regarding efficiency.

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Wrapping Up

So, that’s a wrap for today, people! OPVs might seem like a renewable energy dream, but they will become a reality before you know it. They are already in an advanced testing state, and with continued excellence and efficiency, they will be out on market shelves, ready for solar installation in no time.

Moreover, if you are currently interested in buying highly efficient solar energy products or panels, you can look for highly positive reviewed options online and purchase them.