Organic solar is the next generation of highly anticipated photovoltaic technology. The industry believes that organic solar cells can be made at half the cost of conventional silicon solar, weigh less, and can be used indoors to power devices like smart speakers and remote controls.
Organic solar cells are cheap to manufacture, can be printed directly on flexible substrates, and can generate electricity indoors and outdoors. However, their maximum conversion efficiency is only about 10%, half that of silicon solar cells. But the industry is not abandoning them.
Heliatek, a German innovation, has an organic solar energy conversion efficiency of only 10 percent, but it can be used for 20 years and will be available in 2021. The price is expensive, but the cost will be reduced after mass production. The company aims to produce 600,000 square meters of solar panels a year, with the possibility of expanding production in 2023-2024, with a projected peak productivity of 1.1 million square meters a year.
Heliatek points out that organic solar energy weighs less than 2 kilograms per square meter, and further optimization could bring it down to less than 1 kilogram by 2023.
Heliatek isn't the first organic solar panel to hit the market. Brazilian startup Sunew has produced more than 10,000 square meters of organic solar cells, which are also used in cars and other applications. Sweden's Epishine is also a pioneer in organic solar cells, with a conversion efficiency of 13% and a life span of about 10 years. Its miniature solar modules have entered the market and can be used in temperature and humidity control, card readers and fire alarms.
Japan's Ricoh is also targeting small electronic devices with a conversion efficiency of 10 per cent, and claims that efficiency does not decline in indoor light. Ricoh plans to produce 100 square meters of solar panels in the next fiscal year, enough to power about 50,000 small smart devices. Ricoh said the solar cells could be used in wearable devices and safety sensors in tunnels and Bridges, and the company plans to increase production to tens of thousands of square meters by 2030.
Dracula Technologies of France is developing organic, thin-film-like solar cells that do not require expensive rare earths and are expected to begin mass production by 2024, with conversion efficiencies of up to 13% outdoors and a battery life of about 10 years.
The international energy agency (IEA) estimates that global solar installations have a chance of reaching 14TW in 2050, about 20 times the 739MW in 2020, when solar will account for 33 percent of all electricity generation. Competition will naturally intensify as different types of solar cells enter the market. According to Research firm Fuji Keizai, the global organic solar market will grow fivefold to more than $500m between 2021 and 2035.