Power plastic

Lowell, MA-based Konarka Technologies has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to help fund its efforts to increase the efficiency of its plastic photovoltaic cells.

Traditionally, photovoltaic cells have been manufactured using crystalline silicon, which requires expensive processing and results in rigid, inflexible solar panels. Konarka, on the other hand, has developed a process that allows solar cells to be built using flexible lightweight plastics.

The money from the NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will be used to raise the performance of the Konarka’s dye-sensitized solar cell technology, improving its efficiency to 10%. The company has already built fully functional solar cells that have achieved efficiencies of around 8%.

To boost the efficiency, the company plans to enhance the ability of the dyes and additives that it adds to the plastic during the cell production process to capture more of the solar spectrum.

Earlier this year, Konarka announced that it is also developing a 'photovoltaic fabric' with Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) that can be woven into garments.  Konarka and EPFL will optimize the strength, thickness and electrical performance of photovoltaic fibre that Konarka has already demonstrated that it can manufacture.

Aside from clothing, the technology might have applications in the home. Last October, Konarka was awarded a grant from the California Energy Commission to examine the potential for coating existing roofing materials with its plastic photovoltaic cells as well.