Six Mio. DKK to improve organic solar cells
New project aims to enhance the lifetime of flexible solar panels
Organic photovoltaics is a promising young technology - a low-cost, light-weight, mechanical flexible and see-through alternative to Silicon photovoltaics – which hold strong potential to a large range of applications for example in building integrated photovoltaics and in textile integration. On the way to commercialization, however; there are still some issues to be resolved, especially the device lifetime, which is much shorter than for Silicon photovoltaics. The lifetime of the devices in normal working environments is severely affected by UV-radiation in combination with oxygen and water (photo-oxidation), which causes changes in photovoltaic properties and hamper their performance over time. In addition, repeated mechanical stress of the flexible solar cells introduces further instabilities in the cells, which until now limits their commercial viability.
The project CompliantPV, recently funded by in total 6 Mio DKK from the Villum Foundation, aims at targeting the stability of flexible organic solar cells and improving both the photo-oxidative and mechanical stability of flexible solar cells at the same time by introducing specially formulated stabilizing compounds into the active layers in the cells. The project will ultimately lead to flexible solar cells with drastically improved lifetimes, which is an important step in the further development of the technology. The project is led by the Organic Photovoltaics group at NanoSYD, MCI, SDU, and is conducted in close collaboration with DTU Chemical Engineering (Prof. Anne Ladegaard Skov) and the Department of Chemistry at Aarhus University (Prof. Peter Remsen Ogilby).
