Power from plastic

Solar power is the most abundant renewable resource on our planet. In spite of this abundance, only 0.04% of the basic power used by humans comes directly from solar sources because harvesting solar energy using a photovoltaic (PV) panel costs more than burning fossil fuels. Solution-processable organic materials have recently been intensively studied for PV applications, not because they show a possibility for harvesting the sun’s power more efficiently, but because power generation from organic photovoltaic (OPV) materials will cost considerably less than other PV technologies. The cost/Watt savings comes from the possibility of using flexible substrates, using printable organic inks for the active layers, light-weight transport, low temperature and ambient pressure fabrication, and reduced materials costs. The ability to use solution processes for deposition is particularly exciting because products such as automobiles, freight containers, and building materials could be painted with photovoltaic coatings. This article gives an overview of the current state-of-the-art for OPV technology and discusses scientific issues that need to be addressed to facilitate scale-up of OPV.