The first factory of organic photovoltaic printed roll-to-rool
(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – Will be born in Greece and more precisely in the port city of Thessaloniki the first automated line of printed organic photovoltaic for building integration. The project was carried out by the consortium of companies and universities, and research institutions participating in Flex2Energy, a European project co-funded by Horizon Europe with about 21 million euros. The initiative is led by the Greek company Organic Electronic Technologies (OET) but has conveyed the know-how of companies from seven different European countries, including Italy. The goal? Bring one of the youngest and most promising solar technologies to market. With an eye on integrated applications, particularly in agriculture.
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Ultra-light, extremely flexible, economical to manufacture and easily recyclable, organic photovoltaic has long been a promise of the solar industry. The real challenge for this technology has always been conversion efficiency, lower than its counterparts in inorganic semiconductors. But once the yield increased the industry also had to demonstrate that it could reproduce laboratory results on a commercial scale, without loss of efficiency or stability.
In this field, the OET research and development team has achieved a world record by creating a single-junction organic photovoltaic cell based on a fully molded roll-to-roll polymer, capable of converting 7.4% of incident light into electricity. This processing is the open highlight: roll-to-roll printing allows for the production of high productivity, economic and large-scale creating devices with any shape and size customized, in various colors. Today the company is ready to turn this result into a product for the market. The Flex2Energy project will realize the world’s first 3 generations of organic printed photovoltaic production units for its application in a wide range of products.