According to the cost issue, the manufacturing process of plastic production would approach to a low material cost and roll to roll manufacturing with mass production. The applicability of this idea would be reachable soon I expected.
Next, we could imagine that using the OPVs on "SMART FABRICS" such as bags, backpacks, tents, and awnings. In specific, plastic solar cells will be used for smart fabrics and interactive textiles applications. The properties of OPV cells that enable them to be a great candidate for power generation in wearable form are flexibility, ability to be printed on a variety of surfaces, availability in multiple colors, customizable shapes and sizes, and environmentally friendly profile - non-toxic, disposable and recyclable. For example, if we are going camping with family trip in a lake in rural areas, the smart fabric would help us to generate electricity power with any other machines being carried. Even your travel bags could be used to charge your lighting appliances or radio gears. However, what's the other applications you come up with? Any innovative ideas so far? In a long term development, the third application will be BIPV(Building Integrated Photovoltaics). Most of building are using glasses for the architecture covering system. What's the function of it? Ambient lighting purpose or decoration? What if we put so-called "Power Windows" on the building and use them to generate power for electricity needs? Speaking of its applicability, plastic solar cells are well suited for BIPV applications because of their flexibility, easy installation, better performance in low and indirect lights, and aesthetic value for architects. The biggest advantage is the low cost of electricity generation, at 20% of the cost of traditional solar cells, which puts them on par with fossil fuels. Direct embedding into building materials during manufacturing and lightweight and flexibility further reduces the installation cost.
After the preliminary introduce of OPV, I believe you guys must have a basic understanding about plastic solar panels now. :) Let's share your ideas with me. If you have any innovative thoughts no matter in marketing, financing, manufacturing in solar industry or read any related articles please share with your insights with me. I will introduce the market of OPV and some news in solar industry to every of you in next posting. Thank you for reading my blog and hope you guys like it. See you next time :)
Xavier (Chi-Tsung Lin)
That will be awesome if OPV is applicable on outdoor accessories!!!
ReplyDeleteI once heard from the news that the efficiency for generating the sunlight into energy is still very low, so even though these applications seem reasonable and doable, but is it really practical?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. Actually Plastic Solar Panel is still at R&D stage. usually the conversion efficiency of the solid panel made by silicon is around 10% or at different levels for different purpose. As a result, most solar energy companies are working on improving the module efficiency and lifetime of OPV to manufacturing standard. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. :)
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that new green energy is a really popular topic now~It's nice to see more and more creative ideas coming out. However, I am not sure how do this kind of battery can provide enough electric power with such a small size? And how's the development of its cooling method? Thanks for sharing though!~
ReplyDeleteThis article reminds me of two developing technologies: the super fast charging battery, and the wireless charging, and these two technologies really match with the solar power technology.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the future best seller of smart phone, I think, is going to be small, thin, and light. And it’s really hard to produce a phone which is “smart”, “small”, and solar charging efficient in the same time. And another problem is: most people put their phone in their pocket while they are not using it, so the time for the phone to have access to the sun light is actually short. But if you think about the wireless charging, the problem will be solved, and there’s no damaging to the environment at all. Thus I think the technology of wireless charging combined with solar power generation is really worth of developing.
Second, every time when talking about the solar power, people focus on it’s efficiency. This fact is telling us the efficient indeed matters. The super fast charging battery is another future super star, because if this technology works in the future, it could be placed on the cars, and people could no longer need the petroleum for their cars.
Basically, the OPV technology will not replace current material/technology. I would envision OPV as a complement. For example, the iPad case will be made with the combined material of OPV and Silicon. People are running out of battery power often and then the electricity reserved by OPV can turned on the for urgency.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Topic!!! Actually I really like the idea of using OPV as the case for cell phone while replenishing the battery. However, cell phone, in often times, is not directly exposed to the sunlight as much, since most of the time we carry them around in our pocket or backpack as we are not using them. So I am wondering if the efficiency of OPV for battery charging can substantially prolong the energy duration of a smartphone which is traditionally energetic-consuming. Nonetheless, the idea itself has a great potential and promising market as long as piratical issues such as cost, accessibility, convenience for replacement, and efficiency of the battery in compared with the traditional ones can be solved equally.
ReplyDeleteGOOD WORK!! KEEP IT UP :)
Thank you for all your comments :). Speaking of the cell phone battery charging, the light resource is not limited by sun light. Even if we are in the office or indoor, the OPV still could be charged by fluorescents or daylight lamps. It's a bit like a concept of energy reuse. For instance, we use electricity to powering the light bulbs for illumination, in the meantime, the light from indoor lamps could be used to charge OPV as well. According to points that Fager Wu proposed, the efficiency of this thin plastic panel is challenged by its durability and electricity storage. In preliminary, we are not focusing on using OPV to offering power for cell phone. Instead, we are trying to use OPV to charge the cell phone battery. But as you said, the cell phone may be developed to a smaller, more powerful, more functional one in the near future. so with respect of covering area issue, the unit conversion efficiency from light should be improved to higher as possible.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of wireless charging before. It sounds a interesting topic. I will try to find more information about this issue. Thank you for your comments. :)
Thanks for sharing the OPV technology, which sounds fascinating. It would be helpful if more information about how the OPV generates electricity though different source of light. I would like to see how the OPV utilizes different wave lengths of light and the efficiency of each source of light.
ReplyDeleteThat would be awesome if OPV could be utilized in the smartphone case!! No need to worry about running out of battery or have to carry a charger with u all the time.
ReplyDelete