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ORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAICS

Washing away barriers

Nature Energy volume 2, pages 772–773 (2017)Cite this article

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Light-weight and stretchable, organic photovoltaics offer unique integration prospects. Now, organic solar cells and modules can also be washed while maintaining good photoconversion efficiencies.

More than 300 GW of photovoltaic (PV) modules had been installed worldwide by the end of 2016, predominantly in solar farms and on rooftops, and predominantly based on silicon technologies. Today, organic PV (OPV) modules are not included in the global roadmap for large-scale PV installations, mainly because of the limited lifetime of current OPV modules. The first commercial OPV products instead entered the portable power market in 2008 and 20091. Since then, OPV technology has continued to develop at pace and with efficiency and lifetime continuously improving, scientists and technology experts are demanding novel and innovative OPV applications for further mass markets. With this goal in mind, Takao Someya and colleagues from the University of Tokyo demonstrate washable and flexible organic solar cells with representative efficiencies of about 7–8% in Nature Energy 2.

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Fig. 1: Photovoltaic market categorized according to power and area demand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Material Science, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstrasse 7, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Ning Li & Christoph J. Brabec

  2. ZAE Bayern e.V., Division Renewable Energies, Immerwahrstrasse 2, D-91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Christoph J. Brabec

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  1. Ning Li
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  2. Christoph J. Brabec
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Correspondence to Christoph J. Brabec.

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Li, N., Brabec, C.J. Washing away barriers. Nat Energy 2, 772–773 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0011-1

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