Plextronics Inc. announced that a set of its test solar modules were deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO, for outdoor monitoring and performance testing. This is the first set of organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules ever deployed at NREL.

A set of 10 Plextronics test solar modules – which were created using the company’s Plexcore PV ready-to-use ink system – were installed on the roof of the Outdoor Test Facility at NREL. The performance of the test modules will be continuously monitored, and the performance in Colorado will be compared with testing Plextronics is already doing in Pittsburgh on identical modules. The performance of the modules will also be compared with the performance of other solar modules that are being tested at the NREL facility. The data over the next few months will be used to improve outdoor stability of the company’s OPV technology and pave the way for testing more modules and refinement of the method.

The module deployment at NREL is important to building an outdoor performance database for Plextronics’ products. According to Andy Hannah, Plextronics’ CEO, “Our customers want to understand the real-world performance of our solar technology, and this testing with NREL will allow us to provide them that data,” he said. “To be the first company to work with NREL to test the outdoor performance of organic solar – one of our specialties – is a great step toward the commercialization of organic technology generally. We’re very excited about the program and everything we stand to learn from it.”

Dr. Bolko von Roedern, senior project leader at NREL, is Plextronics’ technical monitor for the PV technology Incubator award the company secured in 2007. “The achievements that Plextronics’ have made in working on the Incubator program has allowed us to take this next step with outdoor testing,” he said. “I expect this kind of testing will be able to help move OPV technology generally closer to commercialization.”