World record efficiency for organic based photovoltaic solar cells

Organic solar cells, while offering much lower efficiencies than inorganic photovoltaic cells, are cheaper to produce and are lightweight and flexible. This makes them suitable for a wider range of applications than rigid solar cells, including clothing and bags. The National Energy Renewable Laboratory (NREL) has just announced that Konarka’s latest organic based photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells have demonstrated a record breaking 8.3 percent efficiency. While this is much lower than the over 40 percent efficiency record for inorganic photovoltaic solar cells, it is the highest performance recorded by NREL for an OPV solar cell, representing a significant milestone for the industry.

Konarka was founded by the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for chemistry, Dr. Alan Heeger to create prototype garments and fashion accessories with portable, wearable power generation capabilities.

Power Plastic is comprised of several thin layers; a photo-reactive printed layer, a transparent electrode layer, a plastic substrate and a protective packaging layer. It can be manufactured up to 60-in (152 cm) wide in virtually any length, and panels can be combined for greater output. It is currently being used in products such as lanterns, backpacks, briefcases, and café umbrellas and is being tested as a component for windows and curtain walls.

'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have combined a liquid catalyst with photovoltaic cells to achieve a super efficient (nearly 100%) electrolysis.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy; a new catalyst, consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode. When the catalyst is placed in water and electricity runs through the electrode, oxygen gas is produced. When another catalyst is used to produce hydrogen gas, the oxygen and hydrogen can be combined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power a house or an electric car, day or night.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

the MIT Energy Initiative

Spray-on film turns windows into solar panels

Imagine if all the windows of a building, and perhaps even all its exterior walls, could be put to use as solar collectors. Norweigan solar power company EnSol has patented a thin film solar cell technology designed to be sprayed on to just such surfaces. Unlike traditional silicon-based solar cells, the film is composed of metal nanoparticles embedded in a transparent composite matrix, and operates on a different principle. EnSol is now developing the product with help from the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Although the concept of solar windows – which steal a percentage of the light that passes through them to generate small amounts of clean, renewable energy – isn’t exactly new, with concept devices having already been developed by Chinese-based Chin Hua, EnSol’s approach signals something radically new: using a vapor deposition process, the company is able to coat any surface with its new solar cells.

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Boeing To Mass-Produce

Industry's Most Efficient Terrestrial Solar Cell

Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab has announced it will mass-produce

a 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell, the industry's highest-efficiency cell.

Last year Spectrolab set a new world record for efficiency with a test cell that peaked at 41.6 percent.

They have now entered production with essentially this same technology and plan to deliver

the first of these 39.2 percent efficiency cells in January.

Today, Spectrolab cells power 60 percent of all satellites orbiting the Earth, as well as the International Space Station. Spectrolab has made significant investments to meet the increasing demand of the terrestrial concentrator photovoltaic industry and expects to achieve a 40 percent average production efficiency for terrestrial solar cells in 2011.