Abstract
Introduction
The economic situation and, in particular, the upward trend in the price of
fossil energies and political pressure on the markets induced in part by
public opinion and in part by geopolitical aims to loosen the ties of energy
dependence has meant that considerable budgets have been allocated over many
years to alternative energy sources. The production of photovoltaic
electricity is one promising avenue among these various types of "clean
energies".
Three main technological avenues exist for the photovoltaic energy production
market: crystalline silicon cells (which, in patent terms, represent around
3300 families since 1985), thin film cells (4300 families) and organic and
hybrid cells (a little less than 1900 families). This study, which focuses on
"organic and hybrid" technology, represents the third part of a three-part
analysis of the patent environment in the photovoltaics field.
Organic and hybrid cells are photovoltaic cells in which at least the active
layer is constituted of organic molecules. There are three main types of
organic and hybrid cells: exclusively organic photovoltaic cells (polymer or
molecular), dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which are constituted of an
active layer made of inorganic material (often titanium oxide) in which is
incorporated a photosensitive pigment, and finally other hybrid cells in which
there is a polymer/metal oxide mixture.
These types of technologies enable not just the mass production of
photovoltaic cells but also use very little material, meaning flexible and
inexpensive supports can be used, such as thin plastic films for example.
These advantages augur well for the success of this type of technology.
However, organic and hybrid solar cells, mainly due to their still too low
efficiency, are not yet able to compete with silicon cells or Cd-Te type thin
films for the mass production of electricity, despite the fact that both of
the latter are more expensive to produce on account of the cost of raw
materials.
Although organic and hybrid technology is still in the maturation stage in
both public and private research centres, industry is already coming up with
an incalculable number of applications. For example, the German firm BASF and
the Japanese firm TOYOTA are already developing windows coated with organic
solar cells to produce electricity. KONARKA, for its part, is developing
applications in everyday objects (handbags, tents, rucksacks, battery
chargers, telephones and laptop computers) or urban equipment (traffic lights,
street lights, roofs, lighted signs, etc.), which would thus be selfcharging.
NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, Japan),
which has drawn up a road map for organic cell technology efficiency,
estimates that 15% laboratory efficiency could be attained in 2020 and 18% by
2030. This technology could therefore reach maturity within ten or so years.
Several industrial concerns have therefore launched themselves into an assault
of this very high-potential market by building up robust patent portfolios.
Today, there are as many patent applications filed on organic and hybrid
technologies as on thin film technology, even though the latter is
considerably more mature.
This IP Overview study aims to establish a global panorama of the intellectual
property of the photovoltaic organic and hybrid cells sector. Its main
objectives are in particular to determine those responsible for initiating
innovations as well as new players and emerging inventors, to determine the
most active research centres as well as potential partnerships, to position
the different players in terms of technological and political choices of
filing patents and to provide a complementary outlook to market studies. After
an overall analysis of the photovoltaics field, aimed at evaluating the
technological weighting of each of the technologies involved (crystalline
silicon, thin films and organic and hybrid), we have focused herein more in
detail on patents and patent applications, filed between 1985 and mid 2007,
that can be associated with "organic and hybrid" technology in an overall
manner and according to the segmentation evoked previously (exclusively
organic, DSSC and other hybrids). We then provide geographic zooms on
Japanese, Asian (with the exception of Japan), American and finally European
priority patents.
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