N102-174 TITLE: Development and scale-up of very low-cost, light-weight, flexible solar cells

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes, Electronics, Battlespace

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PM Mariine Corps Expeditionary Power Systems

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this effort is to develop and demonstrate on increasing scales novel solar cells designs and manufacturing processes consistent with production of very low cost solar cells (<$0.50 per watt) that are lightweight, flexible, rugged, with greater than 6% power conversion efficiency and greater than 3 year lifetime.

DESCRIPTION: Current solar cell technology is impressive, but for the home or business owner, the cost is too high to compete with conventional grid power. Real energy costs can be substantially higher for the military, but high acquisition costs and difficult form factors still limit the adoption of solar technologies. The availability of light-weight, flexible, and low-cost solar cells would significantly increase adoption of solar technologies in the military, particular at the warfighter level for personal power, at the base camp level, and for use in distributed sensing.

Organic solar cell technology, on the research level, has improved to the point where simple printed cells can have a power conversion efficiency of 6 percent, close to that of commercial amorphous silicon cells and at a level where there is commercial viability. The organic cells could potentially cost 80 percent less than cells with similar efficiency. To reach this production cost, manufacturing processes and cell designs need to be developed consistent both with large scale manufacturing and with the precision, cleanliness, and control necessary to obtain optimal cell performance. The challenges here push the state-of-the-art not only in demanding high performance from the active materials, but also in light trapping, electrode design, and barrier strategies, all of which must be consistent with low cost manufacturing on flexible substrates.

PHASE I: Using an ambient atmosphere processing technique, produce active films with at least 100 square cm area and containing at least 10 cells of 5 sq cm. Non-ambient processing can be used for electrodes and packaging. Demonstrate at least 4.0% total area power conversion efficiency under AM1.5 illumination and for 100 hours of continuous illumination at 1 sun or higher. Deliver a film for performance verification. Prepare a report on approach to further develop process to meet full objectives (<$0.50 watt, >6% power conversion efficiency, > 3 year lifetime).

PHASE II: Meet full program objectives (<$0.50 watt, >6% power conversion efficiency on module level, > 3 year lifetime) on 0.1 sq meter devices manufactured on flexible substrates by processes directly amenable to cost effective scale-up for full production. Present a plan for commercialization of this technology.

PHASE III: Scale to cost effective production level. Work with acquisition programs or current vendors to insert lower cost solar cell technology into products for military applications.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Low cost solar cells will greatly shorten the payback period associated with investing in solar power for the home or business and thus could significantly increase adoption of solar technologies.

REFERENCES:
1. C.N. Hoth, S.A. Choulis, P. Schilinsky, C.J. Brabec, Adv. Materials 19 (2007) 3973.

2. C.N. Hoth, R. Steim, P. Schilinsky, S.A. cholis, S.F. Tedde, O. Hayden, C.J. Brabec, Organic Electronics 10 (2009) 587.

KEYWORDS: organic photovoltaics; OPV; printing; spray coating; low cost manufacturing; flexible

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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