Archive:000/Organic solar cells

Is this a good candidate for solar to replace fossil fuels? Maybe.

Considerations

Lifespan

Possible problem

Wikipedia says they degrade easily, but doesn't elaborate.^{[RESEARCH needed]}

Manufacturing costs

Probably low-cost (good)

Maybe cheap enough to viably cover all rooftops. Probably low inputs of energy, materials and labor. This would mean a very good EROI, hopefully.^{[RESEARCH needed]}

Efficiency

Low but not too bad

Probably about 6% efficient. (...)( based on the wikipedia page that says that organic solar cells (average-case) are about 1/3 the efficiency of other (hard material) photovoltaic types. It cited some study that's paywalled; exact stat has not been tracked down yet. )

This might be enough for rooftop solar to provide about half of the world's energy demand if all rooftops were covered in organic solar panels.

Flexibility

Useful feature

Organic solar cells are far more bendable than other photovoltaic materials. They could be installed in places other solar cells can't.^{[EXAMPLE needed]}