Engineering low-cost energy from plastic photovoltaics

clipped from www.worldofphotovoltaics.com Global warming is one of the big issues of our time, and low-cost renewable-energy generation offers hope of reducing the environmental threat. One promising research direction is the use of semiconducting plastics that can turn sunlight into electricity. The efficiency of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices based on such materials has been making steady improvements in recent years, increasing from <1% in 20011 to 6% in 2009.2 While this may still be only a third to a quarter of the efficiency achieved by the best silicon solar cells, OPV fabrication methods have more in common with the food-packaging than the semiconductor industry (think crisp packets rather than silicon wafers). The ultimate goal is to produce flexible, mass-produced devices that will generate electricity more cheaply than by burning fossil fuels. Before this can be achieved, it will be necessary to combine improved efficiency, extended lifetime, and inexpensive manufacture in a single fabrication process.