Organic Photovoltaic Sails for Maritime Decarbonation and BIPV Applications

After briefly presenting the recent results obtained at lab scale in particular on water-processed OPV cells with record efficiencies, this presentation will mainly focuss on the use of OPV modules in specific novel applications. In the frame of the start-up company “HEOLE”, OPV-based sails have been manufactured incorporating OPV modules direclty into the flexible and lightweight fabrics. These sails have been tested in real life, on multiple actual sailboats sailing since May 2022. Results on the monitored solar electricity and energy yields will be discussed as a promissing direction for OPV deployment. Additionnally, OPV sails have been combined with green roofing for rooftop application. Green roofing is an efficient strategy to enhance thermal insulation of buildings. However, green roofing cannot be easily combined with traditionnal opaque cristalline silicon prohibiting the plants developpement. The semitransparency of OPVs enables this combination with plant growing underneeth the solar modules. The experimental roof is operationnal since April 2023 in southern Germany. Results of monitoring will be presented and discussed.