A printable, flexible, organic solar cell | Hannah Bürckstümmer

Unlike the solar cells you're used to seeing, organic photovoltaics are made of compounds that are dissolved in ink and can be printed and molded using simple techniques. The result is a low-weight, flexible, semi-transparent film that turns the energy of the sun into electricity. Hannah Bürckstümmer shows us how they're made — and they how could change the way we power the world.

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52 Comments on A printable, flexible, organic solar cell | Hannah Bürckstümmer

  1. If the next-gen batteries do what they are saying they will be a major game changer and they talking a huge leap over the current batteries.

    • The two front-runners right now are solid state batteries and Graphene batteries but there at least ten different types or subtypes being worked on right only one needs to make to market.

    • TOSStarTrek well my point exactly, all of them are just in prototype mode and couldn’t make it to the market for years.
      This tech is not new, it’s years old, i heard about ss battery and graphene batteries at least 2 years ago. Don’t tell me 2 years wasn’t enough time to even make a first generation to be released on the market.

    • It may be 10 to 15 years down the road but if they only do a fraction of what the prototypes are hinting at they will do it will mean a major shift.

  2. I’m confused no less than 8 years ago I watched a video of this technology…… what’s new other than the fact your still not doing it….

    • Smaragdwolf I worked for a solar cell company for a year. Absolutely loved it, but our major investor pulled out for an oil company instead. Good luck!

    • Probably extremely expensive to produce, and/or ironically they can’t produce it efficiently. So the pot calling the kettle black.

    • Little Cripple They weren’t necessarily expensive to manufacture. We were a research and development manufacturer. Prototype modules and such. We didn’t sell any. Oil is just more profitable.

    • @little Cripple the company i know ramping its Production up actual and from what i know about the technology and production…..its more “we never thought of that” why we don´t see so much flexible solar cells^^ PET-foil, printing contact-metal and organic layers on it, structure the metal, at the end a second foil….finished (to describe it “simple”)

  3. It lacks a lot of informations. She could have condensed it into one paragraph. It would be awesome to have details on how it works, about the amount of energy it can bring to buildings, about the maintenance, the environnemental and economic aspects, the way the cells are produced… Anyway.

  4. It’s interesting. I have a few questions : how efficient is the conversion of light to electricity ? How polluting is the creation of that ink ? How do these panel age ? Once we dispose of those OPV, are they polluting ?
    Currently, silicon PV are relatively energy consuming to produce, relatively low efficiency, not so great of an aging material, and not recyclable and polluting once disposed of. Still better than charcoal.

    • Roger Toledo the “organic” she uses is the same one of “organic chemistry”, the field of study of things based on carbon, including the fuel that power cars and polute through gigantic oil spills in the see. Beware of “organic” things. The term is almost as tricky as “natural”. Uranium is natural, too. Same caution.

    • Roger Toledo I would also ask you, how good a solution would be a biodegradable energy producing paint ? How often would you need to repaint your house ? There is a good chance it is not that easily biodegraded

    • tbh the best thing is still nuclear reactors … if it werent for german nuklear nein danke then we could have thorium generators that save the world and work similar to uranium but are less polluting and much safer

    • Slastraf indeed. Beside, there are project on Accelerator Driven reactors which could be fueled by nuclear waste, reduce drastically their half-life (from tens of thousands of years to centuries), and be far safer as they would be sub-critical. But there’s still way to go before it’s operationnal. Same for fusion, still a long way away if it is even possible. If it weren’t for uninformed ecologists opposing anything “nuclear”, that would be safer. Now, in France, our Nuclear power plants are getting old, but it’s political suicide to build new ones and the only alternative producing enough energy is charcoal… I hope we won’t have to get back to that, and that we won’t have a problem with and old power plant because ecologists refused to see any investment made in it.

  5. The reason It is Not used is it put out 10% (in watts) of what silcon based panels and cost just as much. But a good idea that needs work. FYI

    • Production of flexible solar cells with organic layers needs MUCH less effort than silicon panels. Less production cost -> less price

    • Smaragdwolf less prize? Rectangle solor panels that you see everywhere on roofs put out now about 300—375 watts per panel a string of 10-20 grid tie can power an American house .(and sometimes sell to the electric company) You need 100 – 200in organic cells, on a house and there is no space for that

    • Production of silicon and the production of silicon solar cells is expensive and needs lot of energy and partly hightoxic substances (my education was in that field).
      These OPV here are insanely cheap to produce in comparison! Even if the efficiency would be only 1/5 of silicon solar cells, it would still be a great cost/efficiency rate.

  6. The speaker failed to touch on the two main ingredients for a successful wide adoption of this technology; cost and efficiency.

    Lots of people are not willing to do massive investments that take a seriously long time to justify itself. And even more people are unable to do so.

    Solar panels still have a fairly low efficiency and require large and expensive installations to cover the power need of a normal home.

    • There is also the fact/problem that areas surrounding Solar Farms have increased heat levels. Sometimes even to a scary amount. What would this effect have on a large scale Building that has 70% of its windows paneled. it may be shaded inside but what about the land around the building.

  7. Looks AMAZING!
    And if i understood correctly its carbon-based!
    I want to cover my whole house with it!

  8. What is the efficiency of the ink? How much power does a square metre produce in direct sunlight? Given the thin layer, how much energy is absorbed at uneven angles? Can I coat the arms of a windmill with this to produce a hybrid unit?

    I feel the clumsy shoe analogy could have been replaced with some answers to these important questions.

  9. How much does it cost and how efficient it is and how easy is it to produce? The only questions that matter.

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