Konarka Technologies, Inc.,
an innovator in development and commercialization of Power Plastic®, a material
that converts light to energy, today announced Germany's Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting a future oriented development project
through a consortium that is headed by Konarka, and is providing funding of
nearly EUR 2.5 million over the next three years. The project, called "OPV stability"
targets to significantly increase the lifespan of organic solar cells (OSC)
with the goal of yielding competitive organic photovoltaics (OPV) for potential
commercial use.
Established to develop stable organic solar modules, the consortium consists
of renowned academic partners including University Tübingen, University
Wuppertal, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz.
"The partners of this BMBF initiative are participating to break through
technological and economic barriers in innovation in the field of organic photovoltaics,"
commented Christoph Brabec, CTO at Konarka. "We are expected to make significant
contributions to extending the lifespan of organic solar cells, ultimately delivering
future organic photovoltaic technology with increased commercial attractiveness."
Organic solar cells are flexible, semi-transparent and extremely inexpensive
to produce, yielding huge potential for the future, but existing barrier materials
result in a limited lifespan. Significantly higher life expectancy can only
be realized by combining high-quality encapsulation with high intrinsic stability
of photoactive materials, which is the focus of the BMBF Stability Project.
There have been many improvements in OSC technology in the recent past, but
due mostly to improved packaging of cells rather than an extension of the lifespan.
The BMBF recently announced that it is also supporting a future-oriented development
project by a consortium of renowned companies, including Konarka, which aims
to develop innovative polymeric solar cells for energy-autonomous systems. The
BMBF Efficiency Project is expected to yield solar cells that are optimized
for specific applications with efficiencies of more than 10% and are highly
competitive with other PV technologies.
Posted December 3rd, 2008
