Solarmer Energy says it is now the world record holder for plastic solar cell and plastic solar panel efficiencies.
The company has achieved 6.77% plastic solar cell efficiency, certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and 3.9% plastic solar panel efficiency, certified by the Newport Corporation, which are the highest performances recorded to date by these organisations.
Solarmer’s Materials Development team, led by Dr. Jianhui Hou, made the polymers used for both record breaking devices. Solarmer was founded in 2006 to commercialise technology developed in Professor Yang Yang’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. The company is developing flexible, translucent plastic solar cells.
In April this year, the company had managed 6.31% efficiency. That time it had mentioned that the accomplishment gave proof of Solarmer closing in on their commercial grade module goals of 6.2% efficiency, 3 years half lifetime, and 100cm squared total active area.
The company is targeting three major applications areas for plastic solar panels: consumer & portable electronics, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), and smart fabrics.
The company’s pilot line target completion date is March 2010.
The first major applications for this technology will likely be portable digital electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops and outdoor lifestyle applications.
In the BIPV segment, the company expects plastic solar panels for such applications to be available in the first half of 2011 (samples will be available for potential customers and partners interested in testing beginning early 2010).
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