Researchers: cheap plastic solar cells in 5 - 7 years

Researchers in Canada say the public could see cheap and easy-to-manufacture plastic solar cells on the market in the next five to seven years, according to an item in today’s Energy Efficiency News.

The researchers at the National Institute for Nanotechnology and the University of Alberta say the largest obstacle to mass-produced plastic solar cells today is that it’s not easy to bind the various layers together effectively, which hinder performance. They’re working to develop better binding materials — “special sauces” for the plastic solar-cell “sandwich.”

So far, the researchers say they’ve managed to improve the performance of plastic solar cells by some 30 percent. Eventually, the goal is to develop a system for producing efficient plastic solar cells that could be printed out for large-scale commercial use.