Renewable Energy Blog

Efficient flexibility

Organic photovoltaic cells are not really well known for their efficiency. While advantages in possible applications outweigh the low energy yield, the frustrating issue for researchers in this field is that in theory, the efficiency doesn't have to be much lower than with silicon-based technologies. However, the potential is hard to put into effect, so every small increase is cause for celebration in research labs.

The non-silver bullet

One of the downsides of photovoltaics is the trade-off between efficiency, cost and pollution. Generally, a very efficient solar cell is expensive and, production-wise, as far from eco-friendly as a means of renewable energy generation can be. A new architecture has the potential to shift the weights toward 'greener' and 'cheaper'.

Copper vs. Silver

Today, silver screen printing is the technology of choice for the realization of the top grid electrode in heterojunction silicon solar cells. The difficulty of lowering resistivity and thinning the metal line in silver screen printing prevents from achieving high efficiency and low cost. By replacing silver with copper, many problems seem to disappear.

Far-eastern winds

While the Durban international climate conference is bound to reach something approaching nothing, one of the world’s biggest polluters, China, goes its own way toward clean energy. With an oversupply of land, wind and, not least, people, the Asian giant invests heavily in renewable energy. European companies are allowed to have their share in it.