Next Generation Dye Sensitive & Organic PV, Part 1

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53133

Registering as just a 'blip' on the renewable energy and solar power radar screens only a few years ago, organic and hybrid dye-sensitized thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells are attracting growing interest and investment.

Cutting-edge companies such as G24 Innovations, Konarka, Dyesol and Denmark's Heliotech are commercializing the first generation of products that incorporate hybrid dye-sensitized thin-film (DSC) and organic PV (OPV) cells while continuing to drive advances and improvements in manufacturing and process technology in order to develop new commercial applications, address cell durability issues and drive down costs, as well as increase cell conversion efficiencies.

On the materials supply side of the nascent industry, companies such as Carnegie Mellon R&D spin-off Plextronics are advancing with efforts to commercialize and enhance their ability to produce organic, nanoengineered conductive and semi-conductive inks that are used to manufacture both DSC and organic PV cells, as well as a growing range of printed electronic circuitry.

Their flexible form factors, low cost and ability to capture photons and convert them into electricity both indoors and in poor lighting is paving the way forward for DSC and OPV cells to be used in various and numerous applications.

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[BridgeTheGap]

1. I've heard that the cost drive down of this form of solar makes it

competitive with coal.