In 2014, a Danish-led research team demonstrated that flexible organic tandem solar modules could be made using a complete roll-to-roll process. The achievement was a manufacturing milestone—not proof that the modules were already competitive with conventional solar panels or available as consumer products.
What was the organic solar cell manufacturing milestone?
Thomas R. Andersen and colleagues reported inline printing and coating methods for making encapsulated, flexible organic tandem solar-cell modules. Their paper, “Scalable, ambient atmosphere roll-to-roll manufacture of encapsulated large area, flexible organic tandem solar cell modules,” appeared in Energy & Environmental Science in 2014, volume 7, pages 2925–2933. The Royal Society of Chemistry record describes the work as full roll-to-roll processing of the modules.
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The technical achievement was integrating a complex 14-layer tandem stack into a continuous manufacturing route. The team co-developed ink systems and took the process through laboratory and pilot roll-coating work to full roll-to-roll processing. It showed that the process could produce functional, encapsulated flexible modules; it did not establish commercial competitiveness.
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How did the roll-to-roll process work?
Roll-to-roll manufacturing moves a flexible substrate through a sequence of processing steps, much like a web of material passing through printing or coating equipment. For this device, several functional layers had to be deposited in sequence and work together. The paper identifies these methods and process elements:
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- Flexographic printing and rotary screen printing
- Slot-die coating
- X-ray scattering and electrical testing
- UV lamination for encapsulation
A key integration challenge was the recombination layer that connects the tandem device’s photovoltaic sub-cells. The authors identify a robust inline-processed recombination layer as important to achieving high technical yield. In other words, making one working device was not the only issue: the materials and steps had to work reliably as part of the full production sequence.
Why use a tandem design?
A tandem solar cell stacks more than one photovoltaic junction. The contemporary Chemistry World report, published 19 June 2014, explained that the architecture can capture a broader part of the light spectrum. The extra junctions can improve light harvesting, but they also add layers and make manufacturing more demanding.
What did the reported production rate mean?
Chemistry World reported that a module was printed onto foil each second during the demonstration. That is a rate attributed to the 2014 report, not evidence of sustained factory output, current commercial throughput, or a production rate independently established in the paper’s publisher abstract. The distinction matters: a demonstration can show that a process works continuously without proving that it can deliver competitive products at scale over time.
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The paper established process feasibility: a full roll-to-roll route could make encapsulated, flexible organic tandem modules with a multilayer stack. It did not establish that those modules matched conventional solar technologies in efficiency, operational lifetime, cost, or deployed output. The contemporary report identified efficiency and operational lifetime as important limitations for organic photovoltaics at the time.
Seth Darling of Argonne National Laboratory, quoted in the 2014 report, cautioned: “The performance from these scalably fabricated devices has a long way to go to achieve commercial viability, but this work clearly shows that the process itself is feasible and has the potential for genuine market impact.”
Researcher Frederik Krebs emphasized practical output and yield rather than focusing only on the best-performing individual module: “If I have made a kilometre of solar cells, then I am not interested if one module has an efficiency of 10% and the rest are 2% – I think what is important is what you can make for the public.” He added: “I am the guy that makes a lot of it and tries to look for the average and what is practical, and then there are the other guys that look at what is obtainable. Everybody has their role to play and hopefully we will meet some day, probably somewhere in the middle.”
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Why the 2014 result still matters
The work addressed a manufacturing question: could a complicated flexible organic tandem device be made through an integrated, continuous process rather than only through isolated laboratory steps? The reported answer was yes. That is meaningful process evidence, but it should not be confused with evidence of present-day market availability or proof that the specific modules became commercially successful.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The project also involved research and industrial collaboration. The publisher record identifies corresponding author Frederik C. Krebs of the Technical University of Denmark and collaborators affiliated with organizations including Heraeus Precious Metals, DELO Industrial Adhesives, Merck Chemicals, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Those affiliations document collaboration on the work; they do not establish that any of these organizations currently sells the demonstrated modules.
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