Future of Solar Cells

We have all heard about the solar energy which can be harnessed for free, as it is a natural resource. Yet most of us are not using it in our daily life.
Possible reasons

• Highly expensive
• Needs maintenance
• Not reliable in rainy or cloudy seasons
• Needs a large Installation area
• Mostly delicate to use ( Breakage Possibility)

To solve these issues researches have been pursued all over the world.
In the search for reducing the effect of these issues many Universities have been working. And one of the best idea was to reduce the mass and increase the flexibility of the solar cells. 
Among those trials by the universities, the MIT research center has come up with a Ultrathin, flexible Photovoltaic Cell which solve most of the major issues which we are facing.

These Solar Cells were so thin, flexible. and lightweight that they were introduced by placing them on a Soap Bubble.
The essence of this research is to manufacture a solar cell in which the substrate and the protective coat are made in a single process which skips many other strenuous processes such as the cleaning dust, handling and removing etc..

The Unique credibility of this idea is that " The substrate is grown along with the device"

In the proof of concept experiment  parylene is used as a substrate and the coating. The DBP is used as a light absorbing layer. The resulted layer is 80 microns.  The vapor deposition technique is used for growing the substrate and the protective layer.

Further research is being done with different materials as substrate and encapsulation layers. Even the different solar cell materials are also suggested instead of the organic layers used in the above test.

The size of the Solar cell using Parylene is 2 micrometers thick and has a efficiency equivalent to glass substrate solar cell. This new solar cell can produce 6 Watts per gram i.e, 400 times higher than the silicon based solar module which produces 15 Watt per Kilogram.

The commercially available product may take years, but when released it has more pros due to its "Power to Weight Ratio "These cells can create a major breakthrough as it can be installed on all existing structures without any major change in weight.

This manufacturing process was presented by MIT Professor Vladimir Bulović, research Scientist Annie Wang and Doctoral Student Joel Jean, in the journal Organic Electronics.