Organic solar cells: an epic green energy technology for our planet

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have numerous indispensable advantages, including the ability to fit in different shape/substrates and be thin and flexible like leaves. The transparent property gives it an added advantage when used in various daily applications, such as solar curtains, solar windows, solar lamps, etc. This transparency can be adjusted either by varying the light-absorbing layer’s thickness or (and), by using an appropriate organic material that is visibly transparent yet absorbs more light in the ultraviolet or near infrared region of solar spectrum. Therefore, a solar window or curtain that absorbs the infrared spectrum would not only block out thermal radiation from sun, but also generate electricity at the same time.

A Solar window or curtain can efficiently absorb the day sunlight. But what if sun does not come out for a day or two? Can these solar windows/curtains still be useful? The answer is YES, it will be. We, researchers are also investigating the potential applications of the developed OSCs in indoor light environments. You can read more about this study on Nano Energy Journal’s website. An efficiency of up to 22.72% could be achieved using the indoor LED light of 1000 lux for the studied OSC devices.

The study is quite significant because even while such OSCs only produce a little amount of electricity in indoor light condition, it will likely be sufficient to power the millions of connected goods that the internet of things (IOT) will bring online. Importantly, in order to eliminate the need for frequent and costly battery replacements, there is going to be a fast growing demand for compact and affordable renewable energy sources like transparent and indoor light harvesting OSCs.