An example of how a flexible, organic solar cell might look.
Credit: SPL

Manufacturers have long used silicon to make solar panels because the material was the most efficient at converting sunlight into electricity.

But organic photovoltaics, made from carbon and plastic, promise a cheaper way of generating electricity.

This new study shows that organics can now be just as efficient as silicon.

What are organic solar cells?

The term organic relates to the fact that carbon-based materials are at the heart of these devices, rather than silicon. The square or rectangular solid solar panels that most of us are familiar with, require fixed installation points usually on roofs or in flat fields.

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) can be made of compounds that are dissolved in ink so they can be printed on thin rolls of plastic, they can bend or curve around structures or even be incorporated into clothing.

What’s stopped them becoming widely used?

In a word – efficiency.

This is a measure of how much of the sunlight that shines […]