SolarWindow Sets new Record by Doubling its Power Conversion Efficiency

SolarWindow Technologies, a developer of transparent liquid coatings and processes for generating electricity on glass and plastics, has announced that it has more than doubled its prior certified performance, also achieving the highest independently-certified power conversion efficiency of previous organic photovoltaic devices fabricated at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

The firm reported a record 14.72 percent (+/- 0.29 percent) power conversion efficiency using industry-standard single-cell patterning for performance testing. Spurred by these positive results, engineers are already working to further optimise power conversion efficiency for a single cell, and additionally translate this record efficiency to large-scale SolarWindow applications for products such as electricity-generating glass windows for buildings, automotive sunroofs, and more.

“This remarkable efficiency tangibly demonstrates SolarWindow capabilities to the marketplace by setting a new standard for power conversion efficiency, the absolute metric for determining how much power is generated from light. This is only the beginning,” stated Dr. James Whitaker, SolarWindow Principal Scientist and Vice President of Technology Development.

Last quarter, SolarWindow management announced plans to increase power and prototyping capabilities. Within weeks, Dr. Whitaker and his team achieved a 500 percent increase in testing speed, 12-fold greater testing capacity and output, and 20-times reduction in material costs for rapid lab-scale prototyping of SolarWindow electricity-generating glass. 60 days later, the team successfully engineered, fabricated, tested, and independently certified the highest power conversion efficiency organic photovoltaic device thus far in its CRADA with NREL, more than doubling past performance.

Unlike conventional solar panels, SolarWindow applies ultra-thin layers of its LiquidElectricity coatings and processes to plastics and glass, which then generate electricity. Available in a variety of colours and transparencies, these liquid coatings are 1/100th the thickness of a human hair and can be applied using low-cost and high-throughput methods typical to commercial manufacturing of tinted window films, digital displays, semiconductors, and newspaper printing.

“For years, the prospect of high-performance organic photovoltaics appeared beyond reach. The latest power conversion efficiency numbers achieved by NREL and SolarWindow show promise for the future of large-area low-cost organic photovoltaics,” stated Dr. Bertrand J. Tremolet de Villers, NREL Scientist and expert in scale-up processing of photovoltaic devices.

PC: SolarWindow