Thin-film photovoltaics turn surfaces into sources of power

The durable, flexible solar cells are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They are said to be one-hundredth the weight of conventional solar panels, reportedly generate 18 times more power-per-kilogram, and are made from semiconducting inks using scalable printing processes.

“The metrics used to evaluate a new solar cell technology are typically limited to their power conversion efficiency and their cost in dollars-per-watt. Just as important is integrability - the ease with which the new technology can be adapted. The lightweight solar fabrics enable integrability, providing impetus for the current work. We strive to accelerate solar adoption, given the present urgent need to deploy new carbon-free sources of energy,” said Vladimir Bulović, the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology, leader of the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory (ONE Lab), director of MIT.nano, and senior author of a new paper describing the work in Small Methods.