03.30.21
SolarWindow Technologies, Inc. said it more than doubled its prior certified performance, also achieving the highest independently-certified power conversion efficiency of previous organic photovoltaic devices fabricated at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
SolarWindow reported a record 14.72% (+/- 0.29%) power conversion efficiency using industry-standard single-cell patterning for performance testing.
Spurred by these positive results, engineers are already working to further optimize power conversion efficiency for a single cell, and additionally translate this record efficiency to large-scale SolarWindow applications for products such as electricity-generating glass windows for buildings, automotive sunroofs, and more.
“This remarkable efficiency tangibly demonstrates SolarWindow capabilities to the marketplace by setting a new standard for power conversion efficiency, the absolute metric for determining how much power is generated from light. This is only the beginning,” said Dr. James Whitaker, SolarWindow principal scientist and VP of Technology Development.
Last quarter, SolarWindow management announced plans to increase power and prototyping capabilities.
Within weeks, Dr. Whitaker and his team achieved a 500% increase in testing speed, 12-fold greater testing capacity and output, and a 20-times reduction in material costs for rapid lab-scale prototyping of SolarWindow electricity-generating glass.
Only 60 days later, the SolarWindow team successfully engineered, fabricated, tested, and independently certified the highest power conversion efficiency organic photovoltaic device thus far in its CRADA with NREL, more than doubling past performance.
The company has repeatedly exhibited the aesthetic appeal of its transparent glass window panes generating electricity and successfully demonstrated suitability to low-cost manufacturing and materials.
SolarWindow applies ultra-thin layers of its LiquidElectricity coatings and processes to plastics and glass, which then generate electricity.
Available in a variety of colors and transparencies, these liquid coatings are 1/100th the thickness of a human hair and can be applied using low-cost and high-throughput methods typical to commercial manufacturing of tinted window films, digital displays, semiconductors, and newspaper printing.
Notably, all tested SolarWindow devices were fabricated under the CRADA between SolarWindow and NREL.
Under the leadership of Dr. Whitaker, SolarWindow has worked through the CRADA in collaboration with NREL researchers, namely: Dr. Bryon Larson; Dr. Bertrand J. Tremolet de Villers; Dr. David Ostrowski; Rosemary Bramante, MS; Mickey Wilson, MS; and Reilly Seban, who provided technical support to the SolarWindow project.
“SolarWindow works with a team of highly qualified, talented, and devoted scientists, engineers, and technicians at NREL, enabled by our CRADA. I want to thank each member of the team for their support as we work to build transparent electricity-generating glass and plastics which produce high-power at low cost,” said Dr. Whitaker.
“For years, the prospect of high-performance organic photovoltaics appeared beyond reach. The latest power conversion efficiency numbers achieved by NREL and SolarWindow show promise for the future of large-area low-cost organic photovoltaics,” said Dr. Tremolet de Villers, NREL Scientist and expert in scale-up processing of photovoltaic devices.
SolarWindow device performance measurement and certification were conducted independently from the CRADA team by NREL’s Device Performance Measurement Laboratory.
The Device Performance Measurement Laboratory facility for calibrating primary reference cells is one of four in the world certified in accordance with the World Photovoltaic Scale, and the only U.S. laboratory certified to calibrate primary reference cells, secondary reference cells, secondary reference modules, cells, and modules.
The Laboratory is accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation to ISO 17025 standards for calibration of primary and secondary reference cells and secondary modules. Measurements outside the scope of the ISO 17025 accreditation are accredited to ISO 9001 standards by Orion Registrar.