There’s growing excitement these days around organic photovoltaic solar cells, which use semiconducting plastics instead of the traditional silicon-based cells to produce thin-film solar delivery systems. But are organic cells really a better alternative over an entire life-cycle? Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) researchers say one of the first studies to address that question has yielded positive results.
According to an RIT press release, university researchers attempted to calculate the energy use and environmental impact that comes with material collection, fabrication, mass production and use of organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells. They found that “the embodied energy — or the total energy required to make a product — is less for organic solar cells compared with conventional inorganic devices.”
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