Dresden-based Heliatek is claiming a world record, with 9.8% efficiency from an organic solar cell.
The tandem (two-junction) cell is 1.1cm2, and was manufactured on glass, using a low-temperature process said to be compatible with deposition on plastic film.
"Ours is the only solar company in the world focused on the deposition of small molecules with low-temperature processes, a method that has already been widely adopted by the market for use with OLEDs," said Dr Martin Pfeiffer, co-founder and CTO of Heliatek. "Heliatek develops and synthesises in-house the molecules responsible for capturing light in solar cells and converting this light into electricity. These organic solar cells have now reached the level of efficiency of conventional solar cells made from amorphous silicon."
The firm plans to start production of larger cells in the second half of 2012, gradually adding in construction techniques developed for the 9.8% cell, predicting efficiency over 9% for the active module area.
It is also predicting over 10% efficiency from research cells some time in 2012.
Production will be on a roll-to-roll process using plastic film, producing an 0.5mm-thick module weighing 0.5kg/m2.
"The solar cells are made of fully-organic, readily available material and they do not contain any known toxic ingredients or heavy metals," said Heliatek. "Only 1g of organic material is required to produce one square meter of solar panel."
Heliatek was spun-out of the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Ulm in 2006.
It has scheduled a third investment round next year with a target of €50m.
"We plan to expand our production capacity with additional manufacturing lines. This will allow us to market our panels into new areas, such as windows and facades for building-integrated photovoltaic," said Heliatek.