A Canadian-Swiss-German collaboration has developed semi-transparent organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of up to 12.04%, as well as fully printed prototype modules reaching 10.2%.
The technology was developed by Canadian organic PV (OPV) developer Brilliant Matters, Swiss materials company HeiQ, and Solar Factory, a research group at Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich.
“We expect the technology to be commercially available in 2028,” Varun Vohra, Engineering Department Manager at Brilliant Matters, told pv magazine. “The projected cost per square meter would be under $150, with several strategies to bring this further down once demand grows.”
The prototype cells, measuring 0.04 cm², achieved an average power conversion efficiency of 11.14% and a maximum efficiency of 12.04%. Fully printed prototype modules on glass, comprising 11 series-connected cells with a total active area of 7.03 cm², achieved an average efficiency of 10.09% and a maximum of 10.2%.
The prototypes are based on Brilliant Matters’ next-generation BM10 OPV platform combined with HeiQ’s Xpectra silver nanowire electrode. Brilliant Matters designed the PV device, while HeiQ supplied the transparent conductive material used to collect electrical current. Solar Factory integrated the technologies into flexible, semi-transparent modules and demonstrated their compatibility with roll-to-roll processing as part of the EU-funded Emerge project.
“For the stack development at Brilliant Matters, we used substrates made of glass and indium tin oxide (ITO) with N-10 Flex electron transport layers, BM10 active layers, a double hole transport layer composed of BM-HTL and a high-conductivity PEDOT, topped with the HeiQ silver nanowires and encapsulated with glass,” Vohra said.
Oliver Zech, co-inventor of HeiQ Xpectra and General Manager of HeiQ RAS, said the company’s transparent conductive electrode technology enabled its integration into high-performance semi-transparent OPV devices while demonstrating compatibility with roll-to-roll manufacturing.
Vohra said customer trials using the company’s OPV technology are already underway.
According to Zech, semi-transparent OPV could be particularly suitable for applications requiring both light transmission and electricity generation, including building-integrated photovoltaics, architectural glazing, greenhouse structures, and other lightweight energy-harvesting surfaces.
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