One of the big—but not-oft mentioned issues—with photovoltaics is the amount of energy used to produce PV cells, also known as the embodied energy. The embodied energy reflects how much energy was put into developing a PV device. While studies have been conducted on most forms of PV, little comprehensive research about the embedded energy in organic PV using nanomaterials had been conducted. But researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) recently presented research showing that the embedded energy in organic PV technologies is less than that of other PV technologies.

Brian Landi, assistant professor of chemical engineering research, who served as the faculty adviser on the DOE-funded project, said that the next step now is to conduct research into the energy costs of various organic PV devices to better understand their costs and environmental footprints.

Earlier this year, Annick Anctil, lead researcher and RIT doctoral sustainability candidate presented results of the team’s life-cycle analysis of various PV technologies at the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2010 Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. The research, which won an award at the conference, showed that among PV technologies, organic PV and dye-sensitized PV had the lowest embodied energy costs.

Landi said, “It takes a lot of energy to produce the nanomaterials used in these devices, but the payback is better than” that of other PV technologies studied, which include multi-crystalline, crystalline and amorphous silicon-based PV, and dye-sensitized PV.

He explained the research showed that the energy used to produce organic PVs and dye-sensitized PVs was about the same, and could be recouped by the device within a half year. But “crystalline and amorphous silicon photovoltaics take between a year to a year-and-a-half” to produce the amount of energy used to produce the cells.

“Previous assessments of the energy and environmental impact of the technology have been incomplete and a broader analysis is needed to better evaluate the overall effect of production and use,” Anctil said in an RIT press release. She added that previous assessments did not include a breakdown of all the individual materials in organic PV cells. Nor did they calculate organic PVs payback time.

Landi explained that the organic PVs researched in the study were similar to the materials in Konarka’s PV devices.

“The next step is to extend this research into other organic photovoltaics,” he said. “We want to understand the pros and cons of those devices.”