Trials on printing solar cells like money were completed last week at Securency International, the Melbourne based organisation contracted to print Australia's currency.
The solar cells were printed on polymer, the same material used to print banknotes in 22 countries and are the development of Australia's national science agency "Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation" (CSIRO) who are working towards taking the mass production of cheap printed solar cells from research to rooftops as quickly as possible.
Over 2% power conversion efficiencies were achieved which is much lower than is possible with silicon but the scientists are hopeful that this will improve along with the life time of the device. The main advantage of organic photovoltaics (OPV) is that they can be quickly deployed on a larger scale than silicon cells.
Dr Gerry Wilson, Lead Researcher at CSIRO explained that during the trials the printing presses ran at 200 meters per minute which is equivalent to100km per day. "If efficiencies reach 10% then at these production rates it will be possible to produce enough solar cells in 5 months to make one giga watt of power - that is about the same size as a nuclear power station," he added.
The project is still at the halfway point but the team are pleased with the progress of the trials and believe cheap printed solar cells could be mass produced in 4-5 years as a competing technology to traditional power.
US based company Konarka already has a technology that uses the head of an inkjet printer to deposit the solar cell material as ink on a flexible substrate using roll-to-roll manufacturing, similar to the way newspaper is printed on large rolls of paper. The company say they have the in-house ability to produce material for use by their technical team and application partners for prototype testing and development, and are expanding there US facilities - For larger scale production, they have established licensing agreements with manufacturers in Europe, and plan to seek additional partners in the US and Asia.
Top image: Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Mr Peter Batchelor (right) and CSIRO's research leader Dr Gerry Wilson examining a trial print out of flexible organic solar cells. (Photo by: CSIRO).
For more attend the conference Photovoltaics Beyond Conventional Silicon Europe and read Printed and Thin Film Photovoltaics and Batteries.
