David Savastano, Editor06.25.14
The field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) is one of promise and challenges. There have been plenty of companies that have tried their hand at OPV and backed away, but the idea of mass-producing flexible, low cost PV systems holds much allure. The problem has been solving the many challenges that OPV offers, such as improving performance and lifetimes as well as bringing lab results to the production level.
The reality is that few companies or research institutes have all of the answers to these concerns. This is why a consortium approach is essential, where groups can share their expertise and experience to the organization. This has led to the formation of MUJULIMA, a European Union-funded program to solve some of the concerns facing OPV.
MUJULIMA is funded through the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and will run until Dec. 31, 2016. Coordinated by TNO/Holst Centre, the consortium has nine members, including DisaSolar, which manufactures customized OPV modules through the use of digital inkjet printing processes and product integration. DisaSolar also produces flexible CIGS and thin film Si-based solar modules, and will define in MUJULIMA the product specification for indoor and outdoor applications.
From DisaSolar’s perspective, the mission of MUJULIMA is the development of new materials, inks, cell architecture, light management technologies and inkjet printing process enabling the production of high efficiency and long lifetime OPV. The results of the project will allow OPV to compete with existing technologies as thin film solar modules, and address new markets that cannot be addressed with current OPV performance.
Jan Gilot of TNO is MUJULIMA’s project coordinator, and he spoke about the advantages of OPVs as well as the key challenges that MUJULIMA is looking to solve.
“OPV has several specific selling points to differentiate from other PV technologies: light weight, freedom in shape, substrate and color, semi-transparency and processing speed,” Gilot said. “The current status of OPV is around 10-12% efficiency on lab scale with a lifetime varying between one to five years depending on the encapsulation.
“There are three parameters that influence the success of OPV: efficiency, cost and lifetime determined by the application,” Gilot added. “In MUJULIMA, we want to bring at least two of these parameters to a higher level while keeping a control over the third. It is important to mention that we take up the challenge of bringing these results from lab scale to production scale with our industrial partners, by upscaled synthesis of materials and inkjet printing with dedicated ink development based on environmental friendly solvents.”
Gilot noted that the consortium consists of a broad collection of universities, research institutes and industrial partners. The MUJULIMA consortium members are:
• Holst Centre/TNO (Netherlands)
• imec (Belgium)
• ECN (Netherlands)
• Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)
• University of Wuppertal (Germany)
• CEA-LITEN (France)
• PCAS (France)
• DisaSolar (France)
• NEN (Netherlands)
Each of the partners brings their own expertise to the consortium.
“The universities (TUe, BUW) take up the challenge of developing new functional materials for the OPV stack, while research institutes (TNO/Holst Centre, ECN, IMEC, CEA) will translate and support the discoveries at universities to the industrial partners,” Gilot added. “The industrial partners (DisaSolar, PCAS) will bring in their understanding of large scale manufacturing OPV and synthesizing materials to ensure continuation of the project’s results in industry.”
In addition to coordinating the MUJULIMA project, TNO/Holst Centre is offering its expertise on large area printing, laser patterning and developing the hardcoat on the barrier. Imec brings experience in light management, device fabrication and characterization.
ECN (Stichting Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland, or The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands) has vast knowledge of light management for thin film photovoltaics and lifetime testing for polymer-based solar cells. Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is focused on developing of new polymer materials for application in solution-processed multiple junction solar cells.
University of Wuppertal’s Institute of Electronic Devices will develop novel metal-oxide-based charge extraction and recombination layers. CEA-LITEN offers experience in light scattering structures for enhanced light management and accelerated aging tests for cells and modules. PCAS supplies chemical expertise, while NEN (Stichting Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut, or the Dutch Standards Institute) will assist with standardization.
Improving efficiency and lifetime of OPV cells and modules is a critical first step.
“We aim for an increase in efficiency by specific development and upscaling of high performing photoactive materials for a multiple junction solar cell stack in combination with light management features,” Gilot said. “Upscaling of the whole stack of the multiple junction solar cell will be focused on ink development and inkjet print processing allowing, for large area production in the future. The lifetime of OPV will be addressed by developing acceleration test protocols to correlate mono- and multi-stress indoor and outdoor stability tests in combination with the development of a suitable outdoor protection coating. The objective is an efficiency of15% and a lifetime of 10 years.
“The development of materials like photoactive polymers and light management features and the multiple junction stack are key to achieve a serious improvement in efficiency,” Gilot reported. “The role of the industrial partners is to keep an eye on the feasibility of proposed improvements in large scale production. With appropriate encapsulation, accelerated tests under high temperature and humidity at TNO/Holst Centre show already correlated lifetimes of over 20 years for OPV.”
“OPV shows great features that differentiate it from the existing technologies, such as flexibility, low weight and freedom in the design and color,” Laurence Dassas, CTO of DisaSolar, noted. “However, its efficiency and lifetime are still low. Improvement in OPV performance by MUJULIMA is crucial for the development of DisaSolar through new markets and larger market share. Synthesis of new materials and ink formulations, optimization of the cell architecture and development of the inkjet process are required to achieve the goal of the project.”
Gilot said that the final step will be to bring the advances to the production line, demonstrating its achievements in three applications: small, indoor OPVs for smart home devices, medium-sized panels for urban furniture and a large, flexible “solar roof” for commercial buses.
“The final goal is to achieve our objectives in efficiency and lifetime not only in the lab, but also prove it in production environment with striking demonstrators for indoor charging equipment, urban furniture and transport (e.g. bus, train, car),” Gilot concluded.
MUJULIMA is funded through the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and will run until Dec. 31, 2016. Coordinated by TNO/Holst Centre, the consortium has nine members, including DisaSolar, which manufactures customized OPV modules through the use of digital inkjet printing processes and product integration. DisaSolar also produces flexible CIGS and thin film Si-based solar modules, and will define in MUJULIMA the product specification for indoor and outdoor applications.
From DisaSolar’s perspective, the mission of MUJULIMA is the development of new materials, inks, cell architecture, light management technologies and inkjet printing process enabling the production of high efficiency and long lifetime OPV. The results of the project will allow OPV to compete with existing technologies as thin film solar modules, and address new markets that cannot be addressed with current OPV performance.
Jan Gilot of TNO is MUJULIMA’s project coordinator, and he spoke about the advantages of OPVs as well as the key challenges that MUJULIMA is looking to solve.
“OPV has several specific selling points to differentiate from other PV technologies: light weight, freedom in shape, substrate and color, semi-transparency and processing speed,” Gilot said. “The current status of OPV is around 10-12% efficiency on lab scale with a lifetime varying between one to five years depending on the encapsulation.
“There are three parameters that influence the success of OPV: efficiency, cost and lifetime determined by the application,” Gilot added. “In MUJULIMA, we want to bring at least two of these parameters to a higher level while keeping a control over the third. It is important to mention that we take up the challenge of bringing these results from lab scale to production scale with our industrial partners, by upscaled synthesis of materials and inkjet printing with dedicated ink development based on environmental friendly solvents.”
Gilot noted that the consortium consists of a broad collection of universities, research institutes and industrial partners. The MUJULIMA consortium members are:
• Holst Centre/TNO (Netherlands)
• imec (Belgium)
• ECN (Netherlands)
• Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)
• University of Wuppertal (Germany)
• CEA-LITEN (France)
• PCAS (France)
• DisaSolar (France)
• NEN (Netherlands)
Each of the partners brings their own expertise to the consortium.
“The universities (TUe, BUW) take up the challenge of developing new functional materials for the OPV stack, while research institutes (TNO/Holst Centre, ECN, IMEC, CEA) will translate and support the discoveries at universities to the industrial partners,” Gilot added. “The industrial partners (DisaSolar, PCAS) will bring in their understanding of large scale manufacturing OPV and synthesizing materials to ensure continuation of the project’s results in industry.”
In addition to coordinating the MUJULIMA project, TNO/Holst Centre is offering its expertise on large area printing, laser patterning and developing the hardcoat on the barrier. Imec brings experience in light management, device fabrication and characterization.
ECN (Stichting Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland, or The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands) has vast knowledge of light management for thin film photovoltaics and lifetime testing for polymer-based solar cells. Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is focused on developing of new polymer materials for application in solution-processed multiple junction solar cells.
University of Wuppertal’s Institute of Electronic Devices will develop novel metal-oxide-based charge extraction and recombination layers. CEA-LITEN offers experience in light scattering structures for enhanced light management and accelerated aging tests for cells and modules. PCAS supplies chemical expertise, while NEN (Stichting Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut, or the Dutch Standards Institute) will assist with standardization.
Improving efficiency and lifetime of OPV cells and modules is a critical first step.
“We aim for an increase in efficiency by specific development and upscaling of high performing photoactive materials for a multiple junction solar cell stack in combination with light management features,” Gilot said. “Upscaling of the whole stack of the multiple junction solar cell will be focused on ink development and inkjet print processing allowing, for large area production in the future. The lifetime of OPV will be addressed by developing acceleration test protocols to correlate mono- and multi-stress indoor and outdoor stability tests in combination with the development of a suitable outdoor protection coating. The objective is an efficiency of15% and a lifetime of 10 years.
“The development of materials like photoactive polymers and light management features and the multiple junction stack are key to achieve a serious improvement in efficiency,” Gilot reported. “The role of the industrial partners is to keep an eye on the feasibility of proposed improvements in large scale production. With appropriate encapsulation, accelerated tests under high temperature and humidity at TNO/Holst Centre show already correlated lifetimes of over 20 years for OPV.”
“OPV shows great features that differentiate it from the existing technologies, such as flexibility, low weight and freedom in the design and color,” Laurence Dassas, CTO of DisaSolar, noted. “However, its efficiency and lifetime are still low. Improvement in OPV performance by MUJULIMA is crucial for the development of DisaSolar through new markets and larger market share. Synthesis of new materials and ink formulations, optimization of the cell architecture and development of the inkjet process are required to achieve the goal of the project.”
Gilot said that the final step will be to bring the advances to the production line, demonstrating its achievements in three applications: small, indoor OPVs for smart home devices, medium-sized panels for urban furniture and a large, flexible “solar roof” for commercial buses.
“The final goal is to achieve our objectives in efficiency and lifetime not only in the lab, but also prove it in production environment with striking demonstrators for indoor charging equipment, urban furniture and transport (e.g. bus, train, car),” Gilot concluded.