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The Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) introduces an innovative solar panel to the photovoltaic market, offering multiple benefits to the solar energy sector.
Recently, the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) reached an impressive milestone by obtaining the 100th patent granted by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). The university's latest innovation is an advanced technique for producing organic solar cells, with the potential to triple the efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity from a solar panel. This development could represent a significant change in the photovoltaic market.
Advantage of UFPR’s new solar panel
The patented process is applied to the production of a new type of solar panel which is made up of thin, flexible films, developed layer by layer like a print. In production, semiconductor polymers, which give the cells their name because they are organic compounds, are evaporated and fixed on a substrate, forming a very flexible and semi-transparent material.
One of the main advantages of these cells for the photovoltaic market is the way they are produced, which takes place on roll-to-roll printers, enabling the production of kilometers of cells per month on flexible substrates.
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Unlike a common solar panel, this type of innovation from UFPR is much more versatile, depending much less on the angle of incidence of the sun, using lighter support structures and can be applied in various ways, such as urban furniture, building facades, greenhouses and even backpacks and coats.
The professor at the Department of Physics at UFPR, Lucimara Stolz Roman, who coordinated the study that led to the patent for the solar energy panel, explains that the production of this type of material for the photovoltaic market is quite challenging.
The film is formed through the evaporation of a solution containing various semiconductor materials. Depending on the way the material dries and the heat treatment applied, the film will have a different morphology, which can change its optical and electrical properties, which impact energy generation.
New UFPR solar panel will also be cheaper
The patented process describes a new way of making the film for the solar energy panel, developed during research with this type of material in UFPR Nanostructured Devices Group (DiNE). The new technique allows after the film dries to carry out a new reaction through heat treatment to make it more stable and durable.
The UFPR process for the photovoltaic market also improved the efficiency of light-to-electric conversion. According to the researcher, in the system shown as proof of concept in the patent letter, the organic solar cell tripled its light conversion efficiency with this step.
The main disadvantage of the organic solar panel is its durability and efficiency, which are smaller than conventional ones. And the new patented method is an example of how research is working to solve these problems.
In the near future, organic solar cells should be cheaper, more durable and more efficient, making solar energy much more accessible. This technology is under development and in this aspect it is very gratifying to be able to work for the cells of the present and future, according to Roman.
New solar panel could soon arrive on the photovoltaic market
According to Pedro Henrique Gonzalez de Cademartori, director of the Innovation Agency, the entire patent process begins with an idea, generally from a research project that involves the generation of a product or process that could be an invention or a model. of utility.
With the patent in hand, the solar energy panel is ready to be transferred to society. In addition to the 100th patent, we already have patent number 101 from UFPR, called Constructive arrangement of a systemic multifunctional environment for the interior of transport modes.
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