By Greentech Lead Team: Konarka Technologies, an
innovator in development and commercialization of Konarka Power Plastic, a
flexible organic solar film that converts light to electricity, announced that
Newport Corporation has certified Konarka’s next generation organic solar
cells as demonstrating 9 percent single-junction efficiency.
The Newport Technology & Applications Center’s
Photovoltaic (TAC-PV) Lab is accredited by the American Association for
Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA).
“With this recent certification, Konarka makes
continual progress in the solar cell efficiency of Power Plastic suitable for
our large scale roll-to-roll processing plant on inexpensive plastic
films,” said Howard
Berke, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Konarka.
These advances continue to be based upon Konarka’s
inverted cell architecture, the company’s intellectual property protected under
issued patents.
Konarka’s Power Plastic solar films are
ideally suited for integration into various building materials, including
glass, steel, plastics, composites and fabrics. The Power Plastic solar films
offer creative architects and product designers superior, widespread latitude
with several color and transparency options across a wide range of sizes
enabled by Konarka’s roll-to-roll continuous manufacturing process.
“For architects, design engineers and builders
integrating solar technology into curtain walls, windows, transit structures,
automobiles with energy-harvesting rooftops, consumer electronics and more,
Konarka is dedicated to increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of
manufacturing our design-friendly solar films for more cost-effective,
energy-harvesting applications. We are also quite enthused that this result was
achieved with our newest proprietary blue-grey polymer system which is in
highest demand by our customers in several market segments,” Berke added.
Recently, Konarka announced its
next generation organic solar cells passed accelerated lifetime tests based on
product aging criteria contained in the IEC 61646. The testing was performed by
TUV Rheinland, a leading international test institution, in its Assessment
Center in Cologne, Germany.