Funding Opportunity: SuNLaMP
SunShot Subprogram: Photovoltaics
Location: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO
Amount Awarded: $2,000,000

This project will design and develop efficient, stable, and inexpensive organic photovoltaics (PV). It will also make the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s organic photovoltaic database available to the public and add contributions to simulation and stability of organic PV compounds.

APPROACH

This project will use emergent material properties for the development of new stable materials for organic PV aiming to demonstrate T80, which is the amount of time it takes to drop to 80% of initial power output, of less than 500 hours for three organic PV material systems. The project will also develop molecular dynamics simulation capabilities for organic PV blends.

INNOVATION

Organic PV technologies are uniquely suited to rebuild a base for domestic PV module manufacturing, helping to grow the U.S. PV manufacturing jobs market. Strong chemical and printing/coating industries exist in the U.S., which can be leveraged to aggressively move toward scaling this technology. This program aims to create the advances in R&D that will enable organic PV as a commercial technology in the U.S.