German government invests €2.5M in OPV research

Lowell, Mass.-based solar company Konarka Technologies said today the German government plans to contribute €2.5 million to a project attempting to increase the lifespan of organic photovoltaics.

Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research plans to contribute the money to the OPV stability project during the next three years in an effort to bring the plastic PV to commercialization. The project aims to combine high-quality encapsulation with high intrinsic stability of photoactive materials to improve the lifespan of OPV cells.

Konarka is leading the project, which also involves University Tübingen, University Wuppertal, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz.

Konarka's European headquarters are in Nuremberg, Germany.

Konarka said organic solar cells have huge potential because they are flexible, semi-transparent and extremely inexpensive to produce. But the cells have a limited lifespan that currently prevents use in commercial projects.

Konarka noted that progress has been made in the production of OPV this year. In March, Konarka conducted the first-ever demonstration of manufacturing solar cells by using inkjet printing (see Konarka demonstrates inkjet printed solar cells).

Konarka is backed by 3i Group, Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Eastman Chemical and New Enterprise Associates.

Last year, Konarka was one company tapped by the U.S. government to develop solar windows using its technology (see Air Products, Konarka to work on solar window modules).

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