NEXT OPV Technology
Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) will transform building facades into solar assets changing the world's carbon footprint.
Unique Advantages of OPV Include:
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Enables transparency.
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Maintaining efficiency in high angle, low light, and high temperature conditions.
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Formulating inks made of easily sourced, low cost, earth abundant materials.
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Enabling continuous improvements in efficiency, transparency, and color tuning.
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Eliminating heavy metals and toxic byproducts.
WHAT IS OPV?
Organic Photovoltaics are devices that use organic semiconductors to generate electricity from the sun. OPV is derived from the research that resulted in a Nobel Prize at UC Santa Barbara.
Carbon-based semiconductors uniquely allow for harvesting light in the Infrared (IR) and Ultraviolet (UV) spectrums while allowing visible light to pass through. No other solar semiconductors can do this! In a window, the evolution to OPV makes a world of difference.
OPV
Color Tunability
Transparency
Aesthetics
Efficiency
Low Cost
Scalability
NEXT OPV
NEXT OPV is the future of OPV. Our patented products and processes (50+ and counting) have leveraged the underlying strengths of OPV (tunability and transparency) to create a solution with excellent aesthetics, durability, and performance.
We will be the first to commercialize OPV for low cost, large format, scalable facades in partnership with the best players in the glass supply chain.
EARTH-ABUNDANT ORGANIC MATERIALS
In our early years, NEXT researchers and scientists developed materials, processes, and technologies that overcome the challenges of scalability.
This includes a formulation of low cost, earth-abundant, organic semiconducting materials.
What’s the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry?
SLOT DIE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Like OLED display manufacturing processes, NEXT’s inks are applied directly onto glass using a refined slot die coating technique developed by NEXT.
Our highly refined process is a versatile deposition technique in which a solution is delivered onto a substrate via a narrow slot positioned close to the surface.
Slot die coating has these distinct advantages:
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Enables in-line supply chain integration, allowing us to license the technology to fabricators with existing capabilities to build windows.
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It substantially lowers the cost of standing up a production line, making the technology affordable and globally scalable
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Low-cost and high-speed processing
SEAMLESS INTEGRATION INTO WINDOW FABRICATION
The NEXT lamination manufacturing has a similar design and makeup with solar panels making it low risk and low disruption to the existing glass supply chain.
Glass fabricators can add a relatively low-cost slot-die processing line to their manufacturing capabilities that will lay down NEXT coatings on the OPV carrier lite surface #2 then laser scribe the OPV layer before laminating it to a second carrier lite with an interlayer and PIB edge seal. Leads exit the edge and are tied into a junction box.
The laminated NEXT OPV lite is compatible with established and emerging glass technologies including double or triple glazed Insulated Glass Units (IGUs) or Vacuum Insulated Glass (VIG). Using established materials and techniques, IGUs with NEXT OPV are ready to be installed into a framing system designed to accommodate glass with wires.
GLAZING/FRAMING SYSTEM INTEGRATION
NEXT windows are widely compatible and seamlessly integrate into commercial curtain wall systems:
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Integrates with any standard BIPV Curtain Wall or Stick Built System. Wiring is carried in the mullions
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Contains a single, simple junction box that connects easily to off the shelf solar wiring and inverter systems.
LEADING THE OPV COMMERCIALIZATION RACE
NEXT’s SSM-OPV technology is proving itself through steady progress to cost-effective, scalable commercialization compared to other BIPV window technology approaches.
Learn more about why our SSM-OPV technology is the future of transparent solar.
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