Krebs et al. Scalable, ambient atmosphere roll-to-roll manufacture of encapsulated large area, fl exible organic tandem solar cell modules

We present a cost analysis based on state of the art printing and coating processes to fully encapsulated, flexible ITO-and vacuum-free polymer solar cell modules. Manufacturing data for both single junctions and tandem junctions are presented and analyzed. Within this calculation the most expensive layers and processing steps are identified. Based on large roll-to-roll coating experiments the exact material consumptions were determined. In addition to the data for the pilot scale experiment presented here, projections to medium and large scale scenarios serve as a guide to achieve cost targets of 5 Vct per W p in a detailed material and cost analysis. These scenarios include the replacement of cost intensive layers, as well as process optimization steps. Furthermore, the cost structures for single and tandem devices are listed in detail and discussed. In an optimized model the material costs drop below 10 V per m 2 which proves that OPV is a competitive alternative to established power generation technologies. Broader contextAmong the emerging solar cell technologies organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have gained enormous attraction due to their various advantages in applications, i.e. light weight, semitransparency, tunable band gaps and colors. The decisive criteria for a market entrance of a new renewable technology to become a successful competitor are the costs and cost potential which are inuenced by their processing technique. Currently processing of photovoltaic devices is mainly done in non-continuous batch-to-batch processes at elevated temperatures. OPVs offer the advantage of high throughputs due to their compatibility to continuous rollto-roll coating techniques. This leads to the potential to dramatically reduce the processing costs in comparison to mature photovoltaic technologies. One of the drawbacks of OPVs is their lower device efficiency in comparison to inorganic materials. The use of tandem devices offers the potential to overcome the limiting device efficiency of OPVs which requires the printing of several additional layers. Based on state of the art processing costs the exact material consumptions for single and tandem devices were determined and compared. We demonstrate that OPV is a competitive energy technology which is not only compatible with inorganic PV, but also with other energy technologies such as wind, hydro and biomass.

A new form of interaction with digital displays is described, using the pages and binding of a physical book as the interface. This leads to a form of augmented book, or a-book, which can seamlessly trigger multimedia content on a nearby device using embedded light, pressure or touch sensors.

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