Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE has achieved a world record for the efficiency of organic cells at the laboratory level. Its goal is now to bring solar technology to market maturity.
Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the University of Freiburg Materials Research Center FMF have set a new world record for organic solar electricity. They achieved an efficiency of 15.8% for a 1 cm2 organic solar cell by using an anti-reflective coating that absorbs more light in the photoactive layer of the cell and thus produces a higher current.
The thin film system needed for the coating was developed by Fraunhofer ISE researchers. The efficiencies of organic solar energy are still quite low compared to traditional crystalline silicon cells, although they can also be manufactured cheaply. Researchers around the world are still working to improve efficiency and scalability.
“We achieved an improvement on the record solar cell to a large extent by using an anti-reflective coating that absorbs more light from the cell’s photoactive layer and thus produces a higher current,” says Uli Würfel, head of Fraunhofer ISE’s organic and perovskite solar cell department.
The thin film system needed for the coating was developed by Fraunhofer ISE researchers. At the same time, the research center also developed electrodes for semi-transparent organic solar cells using this coating process. These consist of a photoactive, organic layer applied to a back electrode that lets visible light through while reflecting near-infrared light back into the cell, according to Würfel.
