ABSTRACT

Tremendous progress has been made in the field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) in the last decade, and excellent power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of over 13% have been reported for solution-processed lab-scale organic solar cells (OSCs). 1 9 The significant improvement in PCE can be attributed to the development of novel organic semiconductors with well-designed chemical structures as well as advanced device optimization methods. 10 16 Along with their unique properties, such as low-cost, semitransparency, light-weight and large-scale manufacturing, OSCs are expected to serve as one of the most important sustainable energy sources for non-grid connected applications. 17 In general, a module efficiency of > 10% in combination with an operational lifetime of > 10 years and a production cost ≪ 1 €/Wpeak is required to determine the success of a PV technology. The cost potential of roll-to-roll fabricated OSCs based on actual manufacturing data was comprehensively analyzed, and a very competitive production cost as low as 0.05 €/Wp was predicted for OSCs with a PCE of 10%. 18 Since the PCE of OSCs already surpassed the 10% benchmark, more efforts should be focused at the current stage on the processing reliability and on understanding degradation mechanisms of OSCs. 19