tagged w/ Organic Solar Cells
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New Energy Technologies has announced that the Company is continuing to further advance the development of its tinted transparent glass SolarWindows capable of generating electricity by coating glass surfaces with the world's smallest known organic solar cells.
New Energy's SolarWindow technology uses an organic solar array, which achieves transparency through the creative use of conducting polymers which have the same desirable electrical properties as the world's most commercially popular semiconductor, silicon, yet boast a considerably better capacity to 'optically absorb' photons from light and generate electricity.
The Company's ultra-small solar cells measure less than ¼ the size of a grain of rice, are fabricated using environmentally-friendly hydrogen-carbon based materials, and successfully produce electricity, as demonstrated in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics.
"Our use of these new, readily available and easy-to-apply ultra-small solar cells marks an important advance over the early research and development of our transparent photovoltaic SolarWindow technology, and directly addresses numerous commercial and technical limitations posed by conventional materials, including thin films, polycrystalline solar cells, and silicon," stated Mr. Meetesh V. Patel, Esq., President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.
"I'm particularly impressed by the potential application of this technology in areas where direct exposure to sunlight is limited or unavailable, since these ultra-small solar cells have demonstrated a special ability to generate electricity in both natural and artificial light conditions."
Unlike other solar technologies, New Energy's ultra-small solar cells generate electricity not only from the visible light spectrum found in sunlight but also by using the visible light found in artificial light, such as fluorescent lighting typically installed in offices and commercial buildings.
Commercially, while the majority of today's solar cells can only be installed where direct sunlight is available, New Energy's ultra-small solar cells can be installed anywhere that direct sunlight or artificial lighting such as fluorescent systems emit visible light.
Ultra-Small Solar Cells: Generating Electricity on Transparent Glass
New Energy's SolarWindow technology makes use of ultra-small solar cells which allows for the fabrication of solar arrays on a broad range of substrate materials such as glass, plastic, and even paper. Made of natural polymers which can be dissolved into liquid for easy application, these ultra-small solar cells do not require expensive and complicated high-temperature or high-vacuum production techniques common to other solar coatings.New Energy Technologies has announced that the Company is continuing to further... more
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"(Nanowerk News) IMEC, Europe’s leading independent nanoelectronics research institute and Plextronics, Inc., an international technology company specializing in printed solar, lighting and other organic electronics, signed an agreement to collaborate on state-of-the-art materials and inks for organic solar cells.
With this collaboration, IMEC aims to develop a reproducible process for high-efficiency organic solar cells using Plextronics’ Plexcore® branded materials and inks, which have demonstrated world-record efficiencies as high as 5.9%, according to recent testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.
IMEC aims to develop organic multi-junction solar cells with efficiency of 10% by 2012. The company’s focus is also on up-scaling of the process to achieve a large-area industrial manufacturing technology with an average efficiency of 7% (+/- 0.5%) and solar cell lifetime of 5 years.
To realize these goals, high-quality, highly reproducible commercial materials are essential. In the first phase, IMEC will investigate Plexcore® OS, which is a regioregular poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) polymer with a high absorption coefficient close to the maximum photon flux in the solar spectrum and high mobility. Plexcore® OS materials will be processed using spin coating and validated on film morphology, carrier mobility and reproducibility. Solar cells will be processed on different substrates using spin-coated films of the material.
Future research will include evaluation of other Plexcore® materials and inks, using deposition techniques such as screen and inkjet printing and spray coating on large-area substrates..."
"(Nanowerk News) IMEC, Europe’s leading independent nanoelectronics... more
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