Heliatek breaks efficiency record for 40% transparent organic cells

Share

Germany's Heliatek GmbH has this week announced a new world record in transparent organic solar cell efficiency, achieving 7.2% efficiency on solar cells with a 40% light transparency.

The organic solar film company – which already holds the world record for non-transparent organic solar cells at 12% efficiency – has been working on a higher conversion for transparent cells for some time, and believes this latest breakthrough could help transform the building integrated PV (BIPV) industry.

"The transparency of our products is at the core of our market approach," said Heliatek CEO Thibauld Le Seguillon. "Our HeliaFilm is customized to meet our partners’ specific needs. We are a component supplier and this component is a film that can combine transparency and energy generation. This unique combination widens our market potential."

The company's patented HeliaFilm can be applied to tinted glass and has been pitched at the car roof industry as a way to generate solar electricity and enable car manufacturers to meet ever more-stringent eco-innovation credentials and lower C02 emissions. For the BIPV industry, near-transparent glass panels and windows that have the HeliaFilm applied will also be able to discreetly generate solar PV power when integrated into any building façade.

Although lower than the 12% efficiency generated in opaque cells, the 7.2% achieved is a world record. Partial transparency allows the usage of just 60% of the light for energy harvesting, so for 40% transparent cells this breakthrough represents quite a leap forward for the technology.

Testing was carried out under standard test conditions using a white background, and Heliatek say that the balance between light diffusion and electricity generated can be adjusted, which adds further possibilities for the product’s future use.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Rooftop PV installations could raise daytime temperatures in urban environments by up to 1.5 C

09 October 2024 New research from India shows that rooftop PV system may have "unintended" consequences on temperartures in urban environments. Rooftop arrays, for ex...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.