OrgaPVnet: building a realistic roadmap for organic based photovoltaics

Solar cells with active layers, partially or fully based on organic materials, are the subject of large interest, both from R&D-actors as from large investors. This interest is fuelled by the rapid developments in the field of organic based devices with certified efficiencies between 5 and 6% for full-organic devices and 11% for dye sensitized solar cells, the potentially very low cost of these devices, mechanical flexibility and light weight. The low cost potential is based on the use of low-cost materials and substrates and the very high production speeds which could be reached by roll-to-roll processing. In addition, organic photovoltaic devices take profit of the developments in neighbouring fields like Organic LED’s and thin-film transistors, which could create synergetic effects similar to what was observed for crystalline Si solar cells which took benefit from the large knowledge and equipment base, built up in the micro-electronics sector. Notwithstanding all these promises, there is a strong need to define correctly the technical and scientific challenges, to outline the way these challenges have to be tackled and to define the markets in which these organic photovoltaic devices could create large impact. This is done in the frame of the European Project ORGAPVNET. The paper aims at bringing this information in a concise form to the broader PVcommunity to improve the understanding of this emerging field, to explain how this information is going to be used to build a dedicated roadmap and to explain the synergies which exist with other fields of organic devices.