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Solar in your cell phone?

By | November 15, 2011, 3:12am PST

Summary: British start-up Molecular Solar is working on low-cost organic photovoltaic solar cells that could be used to charge the batteries in your smart phone.

A British start-up called Molecular Solar spun out of the University of Warwick reports that it has tested a voltage of more than 4 volts for an organic solar photovoltaic device. The researchers believe the low-cost solar technology could be suited for future generations of consumer electronics products. Think of it. Built-in solar charging. Stuff like this starts to happen, and quick, as we begin to rely ever more heavily on mobile phones, global positioning satellite (GPS) receivers and so on.

“This is an important advance,” said Ross Hatton, Molecular Solar research director. “We are now very close to having highly flexible organic photovoltaic cells that will be capable of delivering electrical energy at a voltage suitable for recharging lithium ion batteries that are widely used in portable consumer electronics. Remarkably, this high voltage is achieved using a cell with only four junctures [sub-cells].”

Molecular Solar believes its technology will ultimately find uses in a wide range of gadgets, although it doesn’t say when. The company is currently in the process of finalizing an investment round of slightly less than $8 million to commercialize is OPV and MS-Flexifilm electrode technologies.

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Phone, Mobile, Cell Phone, Cellular Phones, Telecom & Utilities, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
MosaicTechnology 16th Nov
As many others have stated in the comments, there seems to be the issue of well, heat. It???s hard to believe that the company hasn???t already though of this, so it???ll be interesting to see how they address this. It might be a nice technology in addition to regular charging??? like getting a little extra power while simply walking around outside. http://www.mosaictec.com
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
Aerowind 15th Nov
This isn't like a calculator which only needs a pittance to run. Mobile phones (especially today's power hogs) would need at the very least, a few hours to get any kind of respectable charge. The problem here is that anywhere that you could afford to leave your cell phone out that long, it's probably also in a place you can plug it in. Phones are destined to spend a lot of their time in dark places (pockets, purses, etc), which aren't very conducive to solar energy.
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
graham palmer Updated - 16th Nov
@Aerowind
What if? ....... What if the 'flexible' (note in article ...highly flexible organic photovoltaic cells) solar panel or sheet is:
1. sewn onto say a scarf or muffler, or a hat or cap,
2. made to protrude/drape from the top pocket of a jacket,
3. used as a fashion material or trim used to make a purse or similar,
The possibilities are endless and all the time your mobile can sit in the dark recesses of your pocket or purse ... charging. Just a few what ifs!
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Not going to happen soon
SiO2 16th Nov
@graham palmer The only benefit these new organic cells have over traditional ones, apart from being flexible (in itself, not that much of an advance) is a projected lowering of cost.

At the moment PV cells are made from discrete modules, made that way because the Silicon Dioxide crystal is laid down in a furnace procedure that limits its size, and also produces a very delicate wafer.

If you spend a lot of time around PV modules you will notice a lot of them are made from broken pieces of wafer. This doesnt affect the cell much itself, but it does make the cell more expensive to make because the process is more involved. They are all constructed manually with a soldering iron and patience, I've made a few myself.

Flexible organics should in theory be easier to lay down, and simpler to hook up into batches. Very likely we wont see PV on things like phones for a while - they dont produce anywhere near enough power (phones draw about 1 Watt while charging depending on model, and you'd need nearly a square foot of area with conventional cells to power it properly.

Compared to 2 years ago, with cells making 0.45V at 200mA per cell, these are an improvement at 10x the volts. But its still only making mA per the same area. Cells from this year manage 3V at under 200mA maximum, and on an overcast day manage 2V at under 100mA, which is pitiful.

Your idea of adding PV to clothing is not a new one, but is a good one all bar cost. It would be hideously expensive to produce such a panel, plus it would have to be cabled to the phone, or use an inductive setup of some kind to transmit the power.

I have a Nokia E7 which I have built a wrist-mount for. (I've been waiting 30 years for a computer small enough to fit on my wrist, but it was the keyboard I didnt envision disappearing so it'd happen...) During the summer I also wear a pair of PV cells on a cuff round my upper arm that charges the phone and stereo bluetooth all day, but its horribly inefficient even in sunlight because PVs need to be facing the sun to work best and drop to 10% when tilted sideways on. You'd need an entire jacket's worth of PV to produce continuous power unless you want to pretend to be a plant and stand facing the light all day.

Just a few more what-if's for you... happy
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
WindowWasher 15th Nov
There's another problem with placing your phone in the sun to charge: HEAT.

Certainly you've seen a destroyed DVD, tape, or other plastic item left in the sun in your car. Would you leave your digital camera in the hot sun?
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
shibuza@... 15th Nov
I wouldn't leave an expensive cell phone in direct sun ordinarily, but ... 3rd worlders, me out camping, me coping with power outages, me after hurricane. The ability to solar recharge a phone would be well worth the extra cost, even if I only NEEDED it once.
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
SiO2 15th Nov
Glad to see I'm not the only one who has a problem with leaving electronics or indeed anything out in the sun. A dark surface gets hot for starters, although this is mitigated slightly by it being photovoltaic. Some of the photons are converted to electrical current instead of simply heating the material, and the more efficient the cell, the less it heats.
I'm a bit worried about longevity too. Organics in any application are typically designed to be short-lived, partly because complex molecular structures fall apart more easily than simpler ones, and particularly if stressed by heat and ultraviolet radiation. Plastics are no exception, and it would be pointless using a flexible component on a metal chassis for example...

Lastly there's no mention of amperage. Being able to squeak 4+ volts out of 4 subcells is impressive, and will easily charge a lithium cell but it wont drive a mobile as well and I cant see anyone leaving their phone off to charge during the day. PV works just fine now, like that, but is still avoided.
USB ports can push out 5v at 250ma, which is enough to power a modern smartphone and charge its battery in a timely fashion. The best PVs I have been able to get my hands on put out 3v at about 160ma in direct sunlight, and it takes 2 of those through a buck converter to charge my E7. The cells measure out at slightly larger than the area of the phone to do it, and the E7 isnt a small device either...
Its getting close, but I dont expect to see PV driving a phone for a year or two yet. Realistically, we need twice the efficiency we have now, giving us a couple of years with Moore's Law bringing power requirements down as well.
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RE: Solar in your cell phone?
MosaicTechnology 16th Nov
As many others have stated in the comments, there seems to be the issue of well, heat. It???s hard to believe that the company hasn???t already though of this, so it???ll be interesting to see how they address this. It might be a nice technology in addition to regular charging??? like getting a little extra power while simply walking around outside. http://www.mosaictec.com

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