Detectors & Imaging

Saule Technologies demonstrates A4-paper-sized, flexible, printed perovskite solar cells

Nov. 10, 2017

Flexible, printed perovskite solar cells have been scaled up to the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

The team of Saule Technologies will present a flexible, printed, perovskite photovoltaic (PV) module the size of an A4 sheet of paper, for the first time, at the IDTechEx Show! on November 15-16th in Santa Clara, CA. Saule Technologies is one of 10 winners of the IDTechEx Launchpad initiative on the IDTechEx Show!, which will feature live demonstrations of innovative and emerging products from early-stage companies from all over the world.

The operating Saule module is printed on an ultrathin plastic foil able to charge personal electronic devices, demonstrating one of the many possible applications of these perovskite solar cells.

"Scaling up the size of perovskite solar cells is one of the biggest challenges for companies and researchers working with this technology. Printing a stable and operating A4 size module has been among our most important milestones for 2017 and we are more than happy to be able to present it for the first time in the USA," says Olga Malinkiewicz, PhD, CTO, and co-founder at Saule Technologies.

Saule Technologies says it has pioneered the application of inkjet printing for the fabrication of perovskite solar modules. Increasing the size of the module and the area covered by the perovskite itself is crucial for large-scale production. While it is already relatively easy to obtain small, one-square-centimeter cells operating with high efficiency in laboratory conditions, reaching satisfactory parameters for a module almost 400 times bigger is a significant achievement.

"Some industries of our interest require the modules to be large enough to make the application commercially viable. Scaling the size up is crucial especially when thinking about construction and space industry. The progress we reported so far is sufficient to let us sign the first cooperation agreements with future clients," says Piotr Krych, CEO and co-founder at Saule Technologies.

Thanks to the cooperation with the National Centre for Research and Development, the company created an independent lab-scale production line and 20 scientists and engineers from 11 countries are working on upscaling the production to industry level. The prototype industry-scale production line is expected to be presented during the Autumn of 2018.

SOURCE: Saule Technologies via IdTechEx; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jAj2I9Aso7ztIkoUuPdzK1nFuXt1lTjOL2WNpfuFSqU/edit

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.